Side Effect: M
by Cattarang
Summary: You know how they say the side effects of a cure can sometimes be worse than the disease itself? That seems to be the problem for Aria Tsukino. She only wanted to ask Hiro Hamada for help reversing her condition, but when she realizes the problem might be bigger than herself, she and Big Hero 6 may be in way over their heads. Hiro x OC
1. Chapter One - Cry for Help

Aria tapped her fingers nervously on the table. She kept her head down, and her dark eyes shifted back and forth every so often. She knew it probably looked rather odd, to see a girl sitting all alone in a cafe, looking over her shoulder constantly, like she was being followed by the mob or something, but her nerves were just getting the better of her. She'd travelled so far, after all, to meet him. She couldn't screw this up, not again. Bad things happened when she screwed things up.

As she drummed her fingers rhythmically, eyes fixing on the cup of coffee and untouched pastry in front of her, she didn't notice the spoon sitting a few inches from her hand start to slide towards her slowly. She jumped, startled, when it bumped into her hand, and quickly swatted it away. It flew off the table and clattered several feet away, though, which drew more attention to her than she was cofortable with. Laughing it off awkwardly, mumbling about how clumsy she was, she retreived the offending tableware with a red face. Her stuttered explanation seemed to placate the other patrons of the cafe, and when the last pair of eyes looked away, she let out the breath she was holding, and slumped in her chair.

'Get control!' she told herself silently, clenching her fists. 'Don't make a scene, control yourself!' As she sat, trying to concentrate, her attention was pulled away when her coffee cup was refilled, and the woman doing the refilling spoke.

"Everything alright, sweety?" the owner of the cafe asked, one hand on her hip and her head cocked to the side, in what Aria thought looked like a very maternal gesture of concern.

"Oh! U-um, yeah, I'm just, uh, waiting." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, not really knowing how to put into words what she was doing here. After all, how could you explain her very peculiar situation? "Um, you did say Hiro Hamada lives here...right?" When Aria had first entered the eatery, clutching the slip of paper with the address printed on it tightly in her hands, she'd asked for Hiro, and had been told by the owner that he would be around soon, after coming home from school. That had been nearly an hour ago.

"Yes, but he's probably off with his friends. They're always doing just...the craziest things!" The owner laughed, shrugging dramatically. "I never know what they're up to. But, why did you say you need to see Hiro...?"

"U-umm, well, I, uh-" Aria went red again, stumbling to find an excuse. But in her clumsy stuttering, there was a slight commotion on the other side of the dining room; an older gentleman was shouting about being allergic to cats, while a very fat calico was sitting on the table in front of him.

"Oh! Mochi, no! Bad kitty!" The owner rushed away from Aria's table to swat at the cat, who gleefully jumped down off the man's table, and proceeded to lead the owner on a chase to catch him. Aria was grateful for the distraction. Too many questions would lead to bad things, just like screwing up.

'Was this a stupid idea?' she thought, taking the porcelain mug in both hands and peering at her reflection in the coffee. 'He's my last hope, this has to work. If he doesn't want to help, I...I don't know what else to do.'

As she mused on her own thoughts, Aria almost didn't hear the jingle of the bell above the door, or the laughter of the five people who had walked in, adressing the owner with a great deal of familiarity. Not until, that is, she heard one specific person utter a name she'd come to recognize very well.

"Haha, yeah, well, I'll be right back, gatta go check and see if Baymax's updates have finished installing." Her eyes snapped up to the boy who'd spoken, just as he turned to leave the group, which was lingering around the pastry case. That was him; he looked different than the newspaper clippings. Taller, less mop-headed, older by a few years, but there was no mistaking him. She'd finally found Hiro Hamada.

"Hiro!" Jumping up from her seat so quickly that she toppled her chair, Aria sprang after him, clumsily dodging tables and chairs. As she made her way aross the dining room, several forks and spoons and napkin holders from the various tables rattled sluggishly after her, some rolling off their tables and onto the ground. When she called his name, Hiro glanced over his shoulder, confused by the unfamiliarity of her voice, and the urgent tone she was using. He was greeted by a slightly unusual sight; a girl with wild black hair and even wilder dark eyes trying her hardest not to knock anything over, and failing as she ran over.

"Uh, yeah, that's me," he replied as she finally came to a stop in front of him. "Do I know- Look Out!" He was cut off, as a metalic glint behind Aria's head caught his eyes. It was a fork, strangely enough, which appeared to have been lobbed at the back of her head. Thinking quickly, he yanked her sideways, only barely dodging the cutlery himself.

"A fork?" The tall blonde girl, Honey Lemon, Aria knew from the newspapers, stepped forward to inspect the fork, which had lodged itself into the wall behind where Hiro stood. "Did someone throw a fork?"

"Who's throwing forks?" The owner, whom Aria would come to know as Aunt Cass, accused, staring daggers at the other patrons. "I'm not afraid to throw a fork back!"

"Uh...what even is going on?" Wasabi asked, looking from Cass to Hiro to the girl who'd only narrowly avoided having an impromtu lobotomy. "Who is this?"

"That's what I was just about to ask," Hiro said, looking to the girl. "Do I know you? And, why did you almost get stabbed with a flying fork?" He paused, before continuing, "Why do I even have to ask that question?"

"I'm sorry." Aria finally spoke up, swallowing her embarassment and nervousness. "You don't know me, but I know you. You're Hiro Hamada, leader of Big Hero 6," she started, tucking a flyaway behind her ear. "I've been following you, all of you, in the papers; you're all really big news in Los AngelOsaka-"

"Hey, I've got a cousin from Los AngelOsaka!" Aria blinked, as a rather scrappy, unkempt boy interupted her. "Do you know a Dave? Kinda, I dunno, fat and stinky, he's got a lot of comic books."

"Uh...no, I don't, sorry."

"Let her get on with it, Fred!" The scrappy kid was smacked in the back of the head by who Aria recognized as Gogo Tomago, who was giving her a rather sour look. "SOME of us have stuff we have to get to."

"I, uh, I just...you're the go-to guy for electromagnetic cybernetics," Aria blurted, turning back to Hiro. "Top of the feild, they say, and, I just, I really need your help!" As she blurted out the last part, another spoon lifted from it's place on a nearby table, flying through the air and smacking Aria in the side of the head. Gogo and Fred openly laughed, while Wasabi stiffled a chuckle, but Hiro only stared in fascinaion. When the spoon struck the side of her face, it didn't clatter to the ground. It merely hung there, like it was somehow attached to her head. Almost like-

"Do you...have a magnet in your head?" Hiro asked, reaching out and plucking the spoon from her temple. Letting it go, he was startled when it immediately reattached to her temple. It was almost like putting magnets on a refidgerator. Aria looked at him helplessly.

"No. I don't have any magnets in me," she said, taking the spoon herself, and trying to set it down an the nearby counter, only to have it stick to her hand. She tried again to let it go, but gave up when it wouldn't budge. "But I think I've been turned into one."

There was silence among the group as her statement sunk in. Hiro was the first to speak after the prolonged pause.

"...What's your name?"

"Aria Tsukino. Please, you've gatta help me! I've travelled a long way across Japanifornia just to see you; you're probably the only person who could possibly help me get rid of this, or control it, or something!" She didn't mean to sound so desperate, but in reality, she really was. This wasn't just about spoons and forks, and this wasn't even about metal in general. Being caught in your own electro-magnetic hell had far worse consequences.

"...I'll see what I can do."


	2. Chapter Two - Initial Scan

"Updates completed." Baymax's voice was a lot softer than Aria had expected. Very calming. Not like she could hear him all that well, though. She was a good 25 feet from the open garage door, where Hiro's friends were congregated, and Hiro himself was running through the list of installed updates on his computer. "Aerodynamic stabilizer upgraded, thrusters optimized, auto-inflation patched. No more updates in the queue."

"Sweet!" Hiro said, leaning back in his chair. "You should be good to go for a few more months, then. At least until I can patch through those upgrades I'm still designing." He smiled as Baymax stepped out of his charging station, before turning back to Aria, who was still lingering far away.

"Hey, c'mon, we don't bite!" Fred said, flopping down on the small couch in the corner, motioning Aria closer. "Well, I mean, I don't. Gogo mi-eeEEOWW!" He was cut off as Gogo walked past, smacking him over the head.

"Uhh," she said, taking note of all the very fragile pieces of equipment she could see in the garage workshop. Fragile, metal equipment. "I-I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"You said you needed my help," Hiro pointed out, "so you'll have to get a little closer so I can scan you"

"I am sensing increasing levels of magnetic radiation," Baymax said, cutting off whatever Aria was about to say. The automaton's head turned towards the girl, who swallowed hard. "Are you in need of medical assistance?" He began to shuffle towards her, but she threw her hands up, backing up a few steps.

"No no no!" she said, trying to laugh it off, but her nerves were obvious in her voice. "I don't think you should get very close to me…I, uh…I tend to wipe computer's hard drives, if I get too close…" Hiro's eyebrow cocked, and he tossed a glance back at his friends.

"I don't think Baymax's program works like that," Honey Lemon said, but Hiro rose from his seat anyway, and followed Baymax.

"…Well, I have his hard drive backed up, just in case. It's not gonna hurt anything to let Baymax try to scan you." He sped up, extending a hand to Aria. "You asked for my help, so let me help you." His smile was crooked, stretching farther up one half of his face than the other, which made his features seem far younger than he really was. Aria hesitated, biting hip lip nervously, before letting him take her hand, and lead her closer to the garage and Baymax. But as she got closer, just like she'd feared, she saw Baymax's feet start to slide over the pavement towards her.

"Whoa, whoa, I thought his skeleton was carbon fiber?" Wasabi said, looking up from tinkering with his gauntlets. Hiro grabbed one of Baymax's arms, trying to pull him out of Aria's pull, but it seemed to be stronger than it was in the café, and the inflatable medical caregiver collided with the small girl, throwing both onto the ground.

"It is," Hiro said, a laugh on the edge of his voice. "But the bearings are titanium…heh, must've forgotten….sorry Aria."

"I seem to have fallen," Baymax said, as Aria tried to wrestle herself out from under him. As the others broke into chatter, both surprised and slightly amused at the turn of events, Aria was having trouble not hyperventilating. 'This isn't happening,' she told herself, chest feeling too tight to breath. 'It's getting stronger…no, no, no…'

"Uh, Aria?" She was broken out of her panicked thoughts by Hiro, who had kneeled beside her, and was trying to shove Baymax off, though the whole 'magnet' thing was making it difficult. "Are you alright? You're muttering to yourself, you know."

"I didn't mean to come here and make trouble for you," she said, turning wide eyes up at him. "I just need help with this!"

"Hey, hey, I'm gonna help!" he reassured, grabbing both of her wrists, and dragging her up to her feet. Baymax was pushed to his feet as well, though he was unable to leave Aria's side. Very literally. "We'll just start with a simple scan, if there's anything wrong biologically, Baymax will find it. You got that buddy?" Hiro looked up at Baymax, who's cameras were already in the process of scanning the girl.

"Scan complete," he said, sifting through the information in his core processor. "No physical abrasions. White blood cell scans show low levels, immune system compromised. Clusters of somatic cells and neurons show mutation at the molecular level. Retrieving mutation analysis now." He paused then, and Aria's eyes darted from his face, to Hiro's, and then to the others, as they emerged from the workshop, curious about what Baymax had to say. She herself was curious as to what he would say, though she pretty much already knew. And it wasn't good. "Analysis complete. Cytotoxic T cell levels elevated. Suggests remission of metastasized tumors."

"Whoa, what?" For the first time since meeting her, Aria noticed Gogo had quite popping her gum, and was staring wide eyed.

"Shh shhh," Hiro shushed, as Baymax continued.

"Analysis inconclusive on unknown cell mutation, further scans recommended. Unusually high levels of magnetic radiation detected, unknown source."

"We know the source, Baymax," Hiro said, motioning towards Aria.

"Impossible. Organic life cannot carry a natural magnetic charge."

"…Then it can't be natural." Hiro looked at Aria, realization dawning on him. Suppressed immune system, t cells, mutations, it all made sense. "You're in remission for cancer, aren't you?" he asked, and behind him, Honey Lemon squeaked, and covered her mouth in shock. Aria only nodded, shrugging slightly.

"Billions of people have had cancer," Gogo said, grabbing Hiro's shoulder to turn him towards her. "How the hell does that make her magnetic!?" Hiro shook his head, turning his eyes back to Aria. She heaved a sigh, feeling slightly calmer, now that the cat was finally being let out of the bag.

"The cancer didn't," she said, playing with a stray locke of hair. "The treatment did, though."

Silence. The lot of them were quiet; until, that is, Fred decided to speak up.

"Heavy."

"I'm technically not allowed to talk about it. But technically, they weren't supposed to turn me into some magnetic freak, so, I guess the contract's already been voided." She noticed, as she spoke, Baymax was able to inch backwards a bit; the force was decreasing. 'Just keep calm,' she thought, taking a few deep breathes. 'Stay calm, and you can keep it under control.' "They described it as being like the radiation they've always used on patients, only more efficient. The old technique killed cancerous cells, but it also killed healthy, living cells too. The new technique was supposed to use a type of modified gamma radiation to target only mutated cells. It had to be programmed with my DNA to work."

"That's incredible," Hiro said quietly, his eyes wide, though she could see the thrill of possibility dancing behind them. He was interested in the tech, which was understandable. It was why she had come to him; someone so interested in tech like this might be able to reverse engineer it, and fix her. "It used DNA flagging to concentrate radiation on mutated tissues…that's brilliant!"

"In theory," Aria continued. "It worked pretty well at first, but my tumors metastasized unexpectedly. It spread from my central nervous system up through my spinal cord, into my brain. I guess that's what went wrong. The radiation had only ever been tested on body cells. I was the guinea pig for human neurological trials."

"Testing unverified medical technology on humans is unethical," Baymax interrupted.

"Yeah, well, tell that to my contract. Anyway, I was ejected from the trial program when I started wiping the computers in the hospital. They almost sent me in for an MRI," she paused, shuddering. "Thank god they kicked me out before then. It wasn't until I started pulling magnets off the fridge did I realize what had happened."

"Fred was right," Gogo said, crossing her arms. "This IS heavy." She turned towards Hiro, who could not stop staring at Aria. "What are we supposed to do? If she can't even get close to the garage, how are we gonna help?"

"I've gotta get more readings!" Hiro said, ditching the group suddenly, running off into the garage, and digging around in the clutter. Aria pursed her lips, as her eyes travelled the faces around her. Honey Lemon and Wasabi were speechless, but the former did reach a hand out, and pat Aria on the shoulder.

"If anyone can fix you," she said, "It'd be Hiro. Don't worry."


	3. Chapter Three - Extreme Magnetism

Watching Hiro's fingers fly across his keyboard and manipulate the projections on the 3D screen was almost like trying to count how many times a hummingbird beat it's wings. It was nearly impossible to keep up! His eyes darted across the screen at a similarly untraceable speed, and almost before she knew what was happening, he was up, feeding cord behind him to several electrodes.

"I'll need these on each temple," he said, approaching her and coming to the end of the cord. The tiny pads he offered her ran all the way across the driveway and back into the computer. "And one on the inside of your dominant wrist. I'm gonna do a few quick scans of my own, to try and pick up any mechanical signals."

"There's no machines in me generating the magnetic radiation," Aria said, sticking the tiny circles to the sides of her head, "there's not going to be any mechanical signals."

"True, but if this is electromagnetic, as I suspect, it's gonna read out into my computer like a flashdrive. I mean," he shrugged, taking hold of her hand, and turning it over, exposing her wrist. He stuck the electrode on, but didn't let go yet. "It's not like it'll spit coherent data out. It'll most likely just be a huge jumble of radiowaves. But it'll be easier to figure out what to do if I get that data." He smiled reassuringly at her, before quickly retreating to his computer. Tapping a few keys and bringing up a program, he initialized it, and started recording the signal.

"Are you able to pass on your magnet powers to other people?" Fred asked, poking at the electrode on one of her temples.

"Trust me," she replied, brushing his hand away, "you don't want to be magnetic."

"Uh, she-yeah I do! Can you imagine how awesome that would be!?"

"Yes. I can. And it isn't." She rolled her eyes at the blonde, but her attention was drawn back to Hiro and his computer, and he let out a shout of surprise. Aria desperately wanted to move closer to see what he was looking at, but she knew if she got too close, she would be a danger to the hard drive.

"Is there any way to, I dunno, turn it up?" Hiro asked her, tearing his eyes away from the scrolling list of signals popping up in the program window. They were all relatively weak signals, but they sure as hell weren't radiowaves.

"Turn it up?" she asked, "like, make myself…more magnetic?"

"Yes! Can you do that?" He looked positively thrilled at the information flooding in, and Aria wished she could be that thrilled about all of this. Of course, Hiro didn't have to live with it.

"I…can try." She knew the more emotional she was, the worse she could control the force of the magnetism. But she didn't know if she could force herself to let go. Maybe if she just concentrated harder.

At first, she just thought really hard about it. Maybe it was mind controlled, and she just had to achieve a higher level of focus to tap into it? But when that proved fruitless, she attempted to let her emotions go. She thought about anything and everything that would make her cry; sick puppies, orphans, needles, airplane crashes, but it still didn't seem to work. Hiro's smile slowly deflated, as he realized his request would have to go unanswered for now.

"Don't hurt yourself," he said, chuckling slightly. "It's fine, this is enough right here. Man." He paused and leaned back, gazing at the scrolling lines of seemingly random numbers and letters. To Aria, they meant next to nothing, but they made perfect sense to Hiro. "This is just…wow."

"What does all that mean?" Honey Lemon asked, walking up behind him and peering over his shoulder. "It doesn't really look like anything to me."

"It's…not microwave readings," Gogo said, leaning against the back of Hiro's chair, as she resumed popping her gum. "It looks more like gamma readings, but…that's impossible. She'd be fried to a crisp if it was gamma radiation, not to mention the rest of us, and this half of the globe."

"It's not gamma radiation," Hiro said, bringing up another window on the display. This one contained a generic body silhouette, with several sections of the brain lit up, as well as weak signals from several other parts of the body. "It's something else, it's not really on the spectrum. Look." He pointed at the lit up regions of the figure's brain, before tapping it, and enlarging the area. A 3D model was immediately shown on the display. "These lit up areas? Clusters of mutated cells, that's where the radiation seems to be coming from. I'd bet these are the areas that had tumors, and were targeted with DNA flagged radiation. That's why none of the dark areas are shown, they didn't get irradiated, so they're not causing the magnetism."

"Okay, back up," Gogo said, spinning Hiro around in his chair. "I know electromag. That's sort of my thing. What do you mean it's not on the spectrum?"

"I don't know," he admitted, though the excitement didn't melt from his features. "But that's what were gotta find out, isn't it?"

While all of this was going on, Aria stood in frustration just out of earshot. All she could do was take Hiro's animated excitement as a good sign, and as she tried to squint and read their lips, Baymax stood silently by her side. He was a robot, and usually didn't speak unless spoken to, but as the silence between them stretched on, Baymax scanned her neurological activity, taking note.

"You seem to emit less radiation when your emotional state is steady," he remarked, surprising Aria, who hadn't been expecting him to speak.

"Oh! Yeah, that's pretty much what I have figured out so far," she said, scratching at one of the electrodes.

"This would indicate that the electromagnetic radiation pulses are directly controlled by electrical impulses fired between neurotransmitters." His processor was running concurrently with Hiro's computer's, searching data bases for research on this topic. His search came up with nothing. "No research on a link between nueroelectric impulses and electromagnetivity has been conducted."

"Whoa whoa, wait!" Both heads snapped up as Hiro called out, nearly falling out of his chair as he scrambled to get out of it and run over. "Baymax, say that again? The think about the radiation being controlled by neurons?"

"I merely observed that her emotional state seems to directly influence the force behind her magnetic charge, indicating that the electromagnetic radiation pulses are directly controlled by electrical impulses fired between neurotransmitters." Hiro's face lit up at this.

"Baymax, you're a genius!" he said, running back into the garage, and erasing several long calculations that were written on a white erase board that dominated the back wall. He started scribbling things down, mumbling to himself, and from where Aria stood, she could just barely make out the calculations he was writing.

"Aaaaand…we've lost 'im," Wasabi sighed, smiling as he rolled his eyes. Shoving Fred's shoulder lightly, he stood. "C'mon, there's no way we're gonna be able to hold a conversation with him again tonight, not till he's got whatever's in his brain down on paper."

"I've got some calculations of my own to run, Honey Lemon put in, following as Wasabi started down the driveway.

"Well, I might as well go resmooth my blades," Gogo said, and as the crew left, all giving half-hearted farewells towards Hiro, who couldn't really hear them anyway, Aria watched on helplessly. What was she supposed to do? Stay here? Should she go now too? Did Hiro still need to run more tests on her?

"Uh..." she said, trying to catch the boy's attention. When he finally looked up, he seemed to realize for the first time that his friends had left, and he looked rather surprised.

"Oh!" he said, setting the dry erase marker down. "Huh, I guess they left."

"Yeah…should I go too?" Aria didn't know what time it was, but it had to be past five already, the sun was going to set soon.

"Well, where are you staying?" he asked, walking over to retrieve the electrodes. "Do you have family here in San Fransokyo or something? Me and Baymax will walk you."

"Oh! Well, I was just going to stay at one of the hostels," she said, pointing vaguely over her shoulder, towards the thick of the city. "All my family lives in Los Angelosaka, and I don't really have the cash for a hotel." Her cheeks heated up slightly as she rambled, knowing it sounded silly to someone she'd just met. "Uh, point is, I was just going to wander, you know? Till I found somewhere."

"Um, no," Hiro replied, cocking and eyebrow and giving her one of 'those' looks. "Are you crazy? Walk around San Fransokyo alone? At night? There are some real nutjobs in this city, it's crazy dangerous!"

"I could always commit a petty crime and spend the night in jail?" she joked, but when Hiro didn't laugh, her smile dropped, and her cheeks flushed harder. "This is the part where laughing usually happens, you know, when someone tells a joke…"

"Aunt Cass will have my hide if I let you leave to wander the city alone. C'mon, you can crash on our couch." As he plucked the little circles from her head, he motioned for her to follow. "And don't worry," he reiterated, upon seeing her hesitance to get too close to the workshop garage. "You won't wipe my hard drives, I promise! And even if you do, they're all backed up too."

"I'm not gonna be imposing on you and your Aunt?" she asked, taking small, slow steps after him. She tried her hardest to be an emotional blank slate, so as not to ruin any of his equipment.

"Please; Fred's over literally ALL the time," he said, waiting for her at the foot of the stairs leading from the garage to the flat. "And he stinks most of the time. You don't stink, it'll be much better than having Fred over."

"This is all very freakin' cliché," she muttered under her breath, too quiet for Hiro to hear. As she inched her way forward, her eyes were trained on the various screens around the workshop. She remembered vividly the first day she'd wiped a computer clean at the hospital. She really hoped this wouldn't be a repeat.

But to her great surprise, the screens and monitors didn't even static; she was able to cross the thresh hold just find, and when she came to stand next to Hiro at the foot of the small set of stairs, she turned, smiling at all the still working equipment. Sure, she'd rattled a few mice, and more than one flashdrive had rolled off the desk and tried to follow her, but that was so mild in comparison to what she was expected.

"I did it!" she gasped, surprised at her own emotional restraint. But when she pumped a fist in the air in victory, finally letting herself feel happy for not screwing something up, the nearest screen waivered, before going black. And then the next. And the next. And then the 3D printer went offline. Until finally the workshop was just a room full of empty computers.

"…like I said, they're all backed up."


	4. Chapter Four - Budding Friendship

"Mochi, get down!" Hiro batted the large cat, who was partially graying at the muzzle now, down off the couch. But Mochi was far too stubborn to be dismissed so easily, and jumped right back up. The boy just rolled his eyes, leaning back against the couch and sighing dramatically, and Aria laughed slightly. She didn't mind Mochi; she didn't have any pets back home, so she kind of liked having the cat around. And it was a good thing too, because Mochi would not leave Aria alone. "So, does your magnetism extend to animal magnetism too, or…?" he asked sarcastically, smiling over at her.

"Ha, I guess so," she replied, as Mochi settled down in her lap, purring. "He's cute. And fat. Do you guys feed him non stop or what?"

"He was born fat," Hiro chuckled, scratching the mischievous cat behind the ears. "I've never known a time when he wasn't."

"Excess body fat can lead to several health conditions, including heart disease, and diabetes," Baymax chimed in from the corner, and Aria rolled her eyes.

"You hear that, little guy?" she said, as Mochi looked up at her. "You gatta shed these pounds or you'll get kitty-betes!" Mochi meowed loudly, as if this had offended him, and immediately jumped down from her lap.

"You insulted my cat," Hiro said, "get out of my house!" He was smiling though, and the two of them burst out laughing. Aria smiled back at him, glad that this wasn't overly awkward. She had just met him, after all, and now here she was, sleeping in his living room. Life was so strange sometimes. As Hiro kicked off his shoes and propped his feet up on the coffee table, he leaned back and stretched. "So, I was thinking we could run a few more in-depth scans tomorrow morning. Then I'd really like to get some more electrodes on you, and measure brain activity during pulses. I have this idea, it's kind of crazy, but I think it could really help you, you know, to control this."

"Yeah?" Aria said, eyebrows raised in curiosity. "What's the idea?"

"Well, I mean, it's not anything concrete yet. I need to finish those calculations first, but I was thinking some kind of, you know," he pantomimed a helmet around his head, "apparatus you'd wear. If I could find out the exact mechanism behind the magnetism, I could maybe create a sort of, like, channeler for it. Contain it. And then make it easier to control."

"Like some big clunky helmet?" The description he was giving her sounded rather cumbersome to Aria, and it wasn't very hopeful. She'd have to wear some huge helmet from now on? But Hiro shook his head, and sat up.

"No, something smaller, more discreet. Something you could in theory wear undetected. Here, c'mon, I'll show you." Standing, he motioned for her to follow, and started towards the stairs on the far end of the room. She hesitated, knowing that once again, she'd be entering a space with countless delicate metal things, that Hiro probably did not want her screwing up. But with a bit more urging, and some deep breaths, she followed.

Hiro's loft bedroom wasn't big at all, and very, very cluttered, and it didn't help that half of it was sectioned off with a paper partition. Looking around, Aria noticed several small figurines, prototypes of bots it looked like, start to rattle across their shelves, but she blocked her nerves out, trying to keep calm. It seemed to work, as nothing came whizzing through the air towards her head.

Hiro dove into the mess that he called a desk, digging through a few drawers. He eventually produced a slim strip of metal that looked almost like a headband. "Here, check this out. This would be something like I'd want to make," he said, handing it to her when she walked up close. It was very light in her hands, and she turned it over to look at the underside.

"Is this the thing that controls the nanobots?" she asked, and he nodded vigorously. It obviously wasn't the original, as that one had been destroyed, but it looked very similar, with a few minor tweaks.

"Yeah, and the mechanism that does it isn't too different than what I'd want to use for yours. I could probably even make it smaller, less noticeable. But like I said, it's still just an idea…"

"Well, next to unmagnetizing me, it's the best idea I've heard so far," she said, and before she could stop it, or herself, she felt the metal start to pull from her hands. It slapped against her forehead somewhat painfully, and as she flinched, several nanobots lying around the room haphazardly started to rattle. Whether it was from the command of the headband, or from her attracting them magnetically, but they started to rattle towards her, until several outright picked up from their resting spots and flew at her head, sticking to her temple. "Ow! Jeez!" she said, plucking one from the side of her face to look at it.

"Ah, sorry about that!" As Aria examined the tiny contraption, Hiro reach towards her and began plucking the others from her head. She held the little robot up to her eyes, squinting at it. "Those things are…well, they're nothing but trouble, honestly."

"I guess I can see why you'd say that, but honestly, I'm just amazed at how small they are, and yet they can still do…well, you know how much they can do." She shrugged at him, as his face morphed into a somewhat uncomfortable expression.

"Yeah, well, they get everywhere. I always seem to find them all over the place." He opened a drawer in his desk and dropped the handful of nanobots in, shutting it quickly before they could spring out and smack Aria in the head again.

"You haven't been using them for anything?" she asked, pulling the headset from her forehead, with some difficulty. "I mean, I know what happened with them, but still. It's such an amazing piece of tech. You've gatta be doing something with them?"

"Nah." Hiro rubbed the back of his neck, collapsing back into his desk chair, motioning for Aria to take a seat on the bed. "I've got so many other projects I've been working on, and Baymax always needs upgrades. Not to mention our suits require constant maintenance, and my doctoral final project, it's all just a bit much to find time here and there to tinker with a long-dead idea. Besides." His eyes darted briefly to the paper partition on the other side of the room, before settling back on Aria, "it feels too bitter to work with them, really. Too much…stuff surrounding them."

"Yeah, I guess I get that." Aria still didn't understand why Hiro didn't sell, or even give the nanobots to someone else to further develop. It was such an amazing product, surely some good could come out of it? But, it was his invention after all. He could do with it as he pleased, even if that meant packing it away. And Aria could definitely relate to not wanting anything to do with things that brought up bad memories. "Sorry I asked."

"No, no, it's alright!" He forced a smile back on, and shook his head. "It was just an honest question."

"You can ask me an uncomfortable question if you want. You know, to get back at me," she joked, which caused a genuine smile and laugh to overtake Hiro's features. She realized he crooked front teeth, but it sort of added to his oddball charm. Made him seem more real.

"Ah, well, when I think of one, I'll catch you off guard with it, how's that sound?" She nodded, smirking at him, knowing it probably would catch her very off guard and embarrass her, but hey, it was what she deserved, right? Pulling her legs up to sit criss cross on his head, her eyes followed him as he got up and walked over to the windowsill, where several small gadgets sat, and picked one up. Snagging a small screw driver as well, he flopped down on the bed beside her, and started to tinker with it. It seemed so casual, like he'd just decided on a whim to start working on an intricate piece of machinery, and it almost seemed funny to Aria. She would never understand computer types.

"Man, I could never work something like that," she said, watching him slowly take the thing, whatever it was, apart piece by piece.

"It's always sort of come easy to me," she said, shrugging.

"Says the kid who graduated high school at 13," she retorted.

"'Ey, what can I say? I'm a genius!" He tossed a somewhat cocky smile at her, and Aria rolled her eyes, but turned her face away quickly; a tiny blush had crept up on her cheeks, and she didn't want him to see. "But, it kind of runs in the family, you know?" he continued, not seeming to notice Aria's rosy cheeks. "Tadashi was a prodigy as well, though he was always better with programming than I was; I'm more of a hands-on, mechanical kind of guy. My Dad worked for one of the biggest software companies in the nation as their head tech engineer. And my mom wasn't into computers, but I hear she was one hell of a mechanic." He tossed the screwdriver he held from one hand to the other, smiling at it. "Heh. So I guess it was always sort of, you know, destiny that I'd do stuff like this. Though I don't really believe in all that 'destiny' and 'fate' stuff."

"My Dad's a used car salesman and my mom makes a mean baked spaghetti casserole. So what does that spell out for my future?"

"Hmmm…I'd wager something involving a food truck," he joked, raising one eyebrow and smirking. Aria shoved his shoulder playfully.

"What a destiny!" Aria continued to watch him tinker, and jokes and quips flowed fairly easily between them, something she was greatly relieved about. Her worst nightmare was to be annoying or awkward around the guy who she was pleading to help her, and this was just such a relief, to be talking with him so normally! It almost seemed like they were old friends, judging by the way conversation flowed so easily back and forth. It was comfortable.

"Here, hold out your hand," he said, taking her outstretched hand when she offered it. Before she could protest, he was sticking a small screw from the device he was working on, on each of her fingers, laughing as they all, of course, stuck to her magnetically. She pouted mockingly, and tried to shake them off. But right as she was, and Hiro was reaching to take them back, his Aunt Cass stuck her head up from the stairwell into the loft.

"Dinner's ready Hiro, are any of the gang staying to eat-well, hello, what's going on?" Seeing the obviously playful exchange between her nephew and the girl she'd met only this afternoon, she climbed the remaining few stairs, as Hiro finally retrieved the screws, and Aria felt a small twinge of panic in the pit of her gut. As she let her guard down, the screws flew once more from Hiro's grip, towards her temple. She was only just able to bat them away in time to save herself a few holes in her head.

"We'll be right down, Ant Cass," Hiro said nonchalantly, "and Aria's staying the night, she didn't have anywhere else to go."

"You do realize how strange all of this is?" Cass said sarcastically, folding her arms in front of her. "If you weren't always surrounded by ridiculous things, Hiro, I wouldn't allow it." She turned her gaze to Aria, who to her, seemed like a very nice, albeit weird girl. But who was she to judge? Hiro was the weirdest kid Cass knew, and she meant that in the most loving way possible. "In the future, maybe the homeowner would like to be alerted to these kinds of things?"

"Sorry, I figured you'd be okay with it," he said, surprised that Cass was putting up any kind of resistance to it at all. She just shook her head, casting her eyes skyward briefly, and waved them to follow her.

"Well, of course I am, if she's got nowhere else to go!" Aria stood and followed the two downstairs, suddenly feeling very out of place. The warm, comfortable feeling she'd had before was gone now. "Hiro, with all those brains of yours, you can be pretty clueless!"

"What?" He cast a look back at Aria, silently asking what the hell Cass was being fussy about. She was right though; he was a genius, but some things just seemed to go right over his head.


	5. Chapter Five - Sigma Radiation

When Wasabi lifted the garage door the next morning after Hiro had texted the gang to come over, they all pretty much expected to see Hiro running tests, maybe, or working on a program on his computer, and Aria with something comically stuck to her again. But what they were greeted with was much crazier.

The whiteboard was absolutely full to the brim with calculations. Both sides were covered in seemingly random and nonsensical numbers and symbols. Cords ran every which way, some dangling haphazardly from the rafters. Two of the four monitors were blank or fizzing out with short bursts of static, and the printer near the corner as constantly churning out print outs of readings from one of the two working computers. Aria sat on the couch holding a smartphone to her chest, and was crying inconsolably as Hiro tried his best to dislodge the various metal items that had stuck themselves to not just Aria's head, but the rest of her body as well. They both paused briefly as the garage door was opened.

"Hey guys," Hiro said weakly, not expecting them so soon. Aria tried to contain her crying, but choking back the sobs was proving difficult.

"…Whatever's going on here," Fred spoke up, "I'm totally digging it! Chaos, man, it's sweet!" He was promptly smacked by Gogo.

"Oh, Aria, what's wrong?" Honey Lemon said, tuttering over to sit beside the dark-haired girl.

"It's…it's…these kittens…they were thrown in a river and then they got rescued and they all found ho-o-omes!" Aria broke down again, overemotional from the youtube video Hiro had handed her to watch. Another one of the screens went dark, before fizzing into static.

"There goes another one," Hiro sighed, scratching his head. He leaned on one arm on the nearest desk, pinning down the keyboard that was threatening to lift from the surface and attach itself to Aria.

"Okay, I have to once again be the voice of reason, but what the heck is going on here?" Wasabi blurted out, a look of incredulous confusion on his features. "This place looks like a tornado hit it, Hiro looks like he hasn't slept in a week, Aria's inconsolable, and…and I don't like chaos!"

"Yeah, Hiro, start talking, this is weird." Gogo paused, picking up a nearby cord that lay lifeless on the ground, "even for you."

"I couldn't sleep," Hiro said, using his other hand to hold down the monitor of the nearest computer. "I kept thinking about the formula. I had to come down and finish it, and before I knew it, it was already morning. But look!" He nodded towards the white board, as Honey Lemon stood to try and make sense of it all. "I finished it!"

"…This is...Gogo, come take a look at this," the tall blonde said, lifting her glasses to squint at it. Gogo crossed her arms as she walked over, but slowly, her face morphed from vague annoyance, to surprise, to awe.

"No way…" she whispered, looking up at Hiro. "This is-"

"It didn't have a name," he said, smiling wide. He stretched, kicking the corner of the white board with the tip of his shoe, and it swung around to the other side. "So I went ahead and named it. It's not Gamma radiation, but it's more powerful than that. It almost…sort of…like, splinters off from the electromagnetic spectrum, and then runs concurrently to it. And so if we're gonna stick to Greek letters here, I chose Sigma Radiation. You know. Can't break the pattern."

"Hiro," Honey Lemon gasped, "This is amazing! I can't believe you did this!"

"…I'm speechless," Gogo said, shaking her head. "So you really didn't get any sleep last night. But that still doesn't explain why Aria's bawling her eyes out over there."

"Oh! I wanted to get some data on the link between her emotional state and the power of the electromagnetic pulses. So I had to make her cry."

"Very gentlemanly of you." Gogo rolled her eyes, and walked over, snatching the phone out of Aria's hands. "That's enough of that." Aria was surprised by then, but she did begin to calm down after that, the things that were stuck to her slowly getting unstuck. Once Hiro didn't have to hold down his appliances any longer, he began rebooting each computer, reloading the backed up harddrives.

"So, this is all great and everything," Fred said, plucking a computer mouse from Aria's upper arm, "But what are you gonna, like, DO with all this stuff?"

"Already on it," Hiro answered, connecting the 3D printer to the network once more, and hitting 'resume project'. Instantly, the large appliance jumped to life, and resumed the printing of a small object. It was just the carbon fiber skeleton of the device, but once it was done, Hiro began tinkering with it, attaching it to his main processor by some thin cords. "I'm gonna need you guys to bring up another sad video on that phone here in a minute, I wanna test this thing out." He uploaded a specially made program into the device, which he'd just threaded with the proper hardware, and then unplugged it. "Moment of truth; catch, Aria!" Tossing it, Aria was only just able to catch it, and she slipped it on her head. It was almost a complete circle, and it sat over her forehead snuggly.

"Here, watch this one about orphans in Sri Lanka," Fred said, handing the phone to Aria. Honey Lemon and Wasabi sat on either side of her on the small couch, and before long, the three of them were teary eyed. "Yup," Fred said, rather proudly. "Sri Lankan orphans. Gets 'em every time."

But as tears started to slip past Aria's cheeks, nothing in the workshop rattles. Nothing lifted. Nothing came crashing towards her head. The only indication that the magnetic radiation was oscillating was the faint, brief flicker of each screen in the room, and the insane readout scrolling across the screen of Hiro's computer. Aria was still hooked up to the electrodes, and Hiro could monitor levels of radiation, and they were slowly climbing. But nothing. Nothing was happening.

"Yes!" he cheered, smiling wide again, and once Aria noticed, her chest tightened up, and more tears spilled down her face. Not because of the plight of the orphans on the screen this time, but because, for the first time in a long while, she wasn't having various metal objects fly towards her head. She was normal. Or as close to normal as possible at the moment, and for her, that was good enough.


	6. Chapter Six - Repulsion

"Hiro, no tech at the table!" Aunt Cass smacked her nephew's hand with the serving spoon as she passed behind him, causing him to drop the headband he was tinkering with.

"Ow! Jeez!" he whined, rubbing the back of his hand, now turning a brilliant red, and Cass shook her head, placing the bowl of salad on the table. Aria sat across from Hiro, flanked by Honey Lemon and Fred. Wasabi was across from Fred, fussing over the placement of each fork and spoon in front of him, and Gogo was leaning in closer to Hiro on his other side as the two of them discussed the specifics of the headband's final design.

"You should really come to the lab sometime," Honey was saying, passing Aria the serving bowl of rice, "Everyone there would love to meet you!"

"I dunno," Aria shrugged, pursing her lips. "I'm not really into being everyone's science experiment. I mean, I came here so I could gain a little bit of normalcy in my life, not become more of a spectacle."

"Oh, no no! That's not what I meant! I mean, just to hang out with us and meet new people! While you're here in San Fransokyo!" Aria couldn't help but smile back as Honey beamed at her; the girl just had an infectious smile! She was just so sweet and cheerful, Aria had taken an instant liking to her.

"It's not against the rules?" she asked, passing wasabi the soysauce when he asked for it. "For a non student to be on campus?"

"No, or else I'd never get to hang out with these dudes!" Fred interrupted, dumping a huge spoonful of wasabi into his rice and mixing it in.

"Yeah, it might be nice having someone else who isn't totally crazy around," Wasabi chimed in, and Honey Lemon laughed that melodic laugh of hers.

"Oh, Wasabi, you're so silly!" she said, and the smile she threw at him was a bit different than her regular grin. It made Aria wonder if there was anything between the two.

"Hiro, please!" Cass shot him a pained look from the head of the table as she sat down. "Tables are for eating, NOT testing the integrity of internal magnetic servos; put. It. Away." The group broke into chuckles at this, as Hiro returned his Aunt's stern look, before getting up to leave it on the nearby end table.

"So whaddya say?" Fred asked, with his mouth full. "Gonna come hang out with us awesome dudes and dudettes?"

"Well, if it's alright, sure," she finally said, rather sheepishly. "I'm not very science-y, though, like you guys."

"Anyone can appreciate science, though," Wasabi said, "you don't have to be a brain surgeon to think it's cool."

"I guess that's true…okay, then. Sounds like a plan." Honey let out a squeal of happiness, giving Aria a side-hug, as Fred threw his arms up, nearly overturning every single dinnerware in front of him. 'Jeez, these guys are animated,' Aria thought, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She wasn't all that popular back home, in fact, she'd been so unknown in her hometown, it was a wonder her parents even knew who she was. She was so introverted, most days she just spent in her room, reading or writing alone. But this was nice. These guys were nice. It was like having real friends, and she liked it. It was a great feeling!

Aria continually had trouble with her silverware sticking to her hands and refusing to be put down throughout the dinner, but the one thing that was really occupying her mind was how Gogo and Hiro were bent close, heads together, discussing the hardware for her magnetic radiation regulator. She didn't know why that bothered her so much. Maybe it was the familiarity between them; they were friends, obviously, had been through a lot together. Maybe it was their shared intellect; they both knew so much about mechanical science, it was alarming, and they could share and bond over that knowledge freely. Maybe it was simply how Gogo looked; she was like a taller, edgier, older version of Aria, who looked like she could be Gogo's skinny kid sister. Any of those was a good excuse for her unsettling feeling. But she tried to push that down. Mostly because it was causing the salt shaker to try and slide across the table towards her repeatedly.

* * *

"Hmm, need my .5 screwdriver," Hiro mused, turning the regulator over in his hands again. It was just him and Aria and Aunt Cass now (to Aria's relief) as the latter two were in the kitchen, finishing up the dinner dishes.

"You could help with the clean up, you know," Cass said sarcastically, though she knew Hiro wouldn't.

"Not now, Aunt Cass, gatta fix this!" he called over his shoulder, as he vaulted over the back of the couch, and over towards the staircase. "Aria, c'mon, I gatta try something!"

"Uh, well, I'm still doing dishes-" Aria turned, only to see Hiro had disappeared up the stairs, and her lips formed a thin line across her face. Cass wore a similar expression.

"That boy," the older woman sighed, dunking the plate she held in the soapy water. Aria cracked a small smile. "Well, go on. I can finish up here."

"Are you sure?" she asked, but Cass just smiled kindly.

"Yeah, go on. I'm sure whatever he's got to show you is something big. Besides, we're almost done here, and I can get the rest. You've already been a big enough help as it is." Aria smiled gratefully at her, before following Hiro towards the stairs. That boy did not appreciate his Aunt enough, she thought.

"Okay, what's so importa-aaAAAHH whoa what!?" Aria nearly fell backwards down the stairs when she reached the top. Hiro was pulling his SFT sweatshirt off, and his tshirt under it had gotten stuck to it, and gotten pulled up as well. This, understandably, took Aria by surprise, and as she stumbled backwards, nearly tumbling down the stairs, the metal immediately around her jerked to life, and whizzed through the air. Not towards her, though. No, this time, she'd sent metal objects flying away from her, and a set of keys flew from their hook on the wall, and smacked Hiro right in the chest. This caused him to fall backwards, still caught up in his sweatshirt, into his rolling desk chair, which sent him careening backwards into his bookshelf. Several of his fighting bot prototypes fell down then from the top of said bookshelf, onto Hiro's head, causing him to shout out in pain. Finally, hearing Hiro, Baymax started to inflate, from where he was charging at his station, and make his way over.

"I heard a cry of distress. Please rate your pain from 1 to 10." He said, in his signature, non-intimidating voice.

"What…the heck was that!?" Hiro said, wrestling his way out of his sweatshirt, and pulling his tshirt back down. He hadn't meant to sound so angry, he was mostly just winded, but Aria physically flinched away from his hostile tone.

"I…I don't know! I'm sorry! That's never happened before!" she stuttered, surprised at herself for doing that. She'd never repelled objects before! Hiro bent to pick up the set of keys, and looked incredulously at Aria.

"You can repel objects!?" he asked, one corner of his mouth pulling up. "I didn't know you could…I thought…jeez, this changes everything!" He tossed the keys onto his bed, and went over to his desk, pulling out a notepad and a pencil. He scribbled some calculations down, and let out a short, curt laugh.

"I'm sorry, I'm not following," Aria said, walking up behind him. "Are you mad? Or…happy? I can't tell."

"I'm in awe of your abilities," Hiro said, casting a smile back at her. "Okay. Tomorrow, more tests. We've got to fix a few bugs in this regulator, but…oh man, do I have plans for this!"

Somehow, this did not soothe Aria's nerves.

* * *

"How many?"

"Just two, sir."

"And they're both missing?"

"Yes sir." The older man sat hunched over his desk, holding the sides of his head in his hands. He was graying, perhaps prematurely, and wore thick glasses that turned his usually small eyes into fun-house mirror versions of themselves. His assistant stood nervously nearby in the cramped, dark office.

"This isn't good, Hattingfeild," the older man sighed, casting an angry glance at the younger physician. "This isn't just some clerical error. This isn't a botched rhinoplasty. This isn't even a wrongful amputation. This is big."

"It won't happen again, sir," Hattingfeild said, a small quiver in his voice.

"You're right. This won't happen again. None of it." The older man stood up then. "Cut the program. Refund the grant. Destroy files on the patients. I don't care how you do it, burn the hospital down if you need to."

"Sir?"

"Miss Tsukino and Mr. Ome were never treated here, do you understand me?" His eyes looked tired, just so tired. Like he'd seen too much. "This tech? It never existed. Deny the treatment, discredit the side effects. None of this can come to light, do you hear me? It would ruin me."

"Yes sir. I understand completely."


	7. Chapter Seven - Prototypes

"This isn't going to shock me or anything, right?" Aria held the regulator at arm's length, peering at it apprehensively. It had shocked Hiro not five minutes ago as he was 'puttin on the final touches', and she certainly didn't want to get shocked in the head. Though, if a shock to the head was what it took to get unmagnetized…

"I swear," Hiro promised, leaning back in his swivel chair. The two of them had gone back down to the garage to work on it, as Hiro had wanted to add a few more features in light of Aria's newly discovered powers of magnetic repulsion. Aria stared at the device a few more seconds, before slowly setting it on top of her head. It fit snugly around her temples, wrapping across her forehead, and a wave of relief washed over her as she felt no electricity coursing through her brain. "See? Told you."

"How's the shock burn?" she asked wryly, reaching out to look at his hand, and his slightly singed fingertips.

"Just fine, thanks for asking." Sticking his tongue out playfully, he swiveled around, and went back to typing something into his program. "Now that we've got the regulator out of the way, we can get to the fun part."

"Fun part?" she said, confused as to what he meant by that. "What do you mean, 'fun part'. This IS the fun part; not being magnetized any more."

"Weeeeell…" He clicked a few things on the monitor, before pushing off and rolling across the room to the 3D display on the other side. He pulled up a file, which contained something that looked like a glove, and started to manipulate it. "Y'see, I've been thinking. This is…well, this is beyond amazing! This is like, superhero stuff. Do you know how much Fred would very literally kill for this opportunity?" Hiro said this with a laugh, but it was no joke; Fred would kill to have legitimate super powers. "And I mean, yeah, we've got to control it. But why stop there?"

"Hiro," Aria said, a warning in her tone, but he ignored her.

"I could definitely build something like this, to channel the regulated power through. So instead of attracting and repelling things at random based on your mood, you'd be able to control it better, through specialized ports built into things like shoes or gloves. Look!" He waved her over, and she honestly didn't know if she wanted to humor him by coming to look. But she did anyway, wary of what he had to show her. "I don't know if you'd ever be able to control it on your own, you know, naturally," he continued, enlarging the 3D map of the gauntlet on the display, "But maybe. And in that case, these would be like training wheels. Teaching your cells how to keep the radiation channeled through specific parts of your body. So maybe, in the future, you wouldn't have to wear a regulator at all."

Now that; that appealed to Aria. Getting to walk around like a normal human being again, not having to worry about crying and pulling a car off the road or something. It was all she really wanted, the only thing really, and if these gloves or whatever were the only thing that would help her get back to that, then so be it.

"Okay, well, I like the sound of that…but why are they so clunky? Couldn't they be slim or discreet like the regulator?"

"Uh, haha, well…that's the other thing." He looked sideways at her, sheepishly, and pulled up another file, this one containing the make up of a whole suit. Just like the rest of Big Hero 6's.

"No." It was quick, and it was definite. She was not going to be some crime fighting superhero. She just wasn't.

"Aria, you didn't even have to hear what I was gonna-"

"I'm not joining Big Hero 6 as Magno-girl, the electro-magnetic freak," she said bluntly, and Hiro scrambled to show her the specifics of the suit, in an effort to persuade her.

"But just look! The helmet's got the regulator built in, plus it syncs up to the rest of ours, so we can communicate wirelessly. The chanellers are built into the gauntlets and sleeves, you've got regulatory circuiting throughout the suit…and c'mon, think of how cool it would be!?" He looked so excited and eager, there was something inside Aria that was telling her to just say yes, if only to make him happy. But that wasn't really what she wanted. She wanted to be normal, not some super-powered outcast.

"Hiro," she said, rubbing the back of her neck uncomfortably, "I just don't know. I'm not looking for fame, or renound, or glory or whatever. I just want to be normal. That's…not exactly normal."

"Just think about it, okay?" he asked, taking her hand briefly. Her cheeks instantly flared up red, and she looked away, pouting. How dare he fluster her so easy! Damn him and his goofy smile, and genuine laugh and honest eyes…

"Fine. I'll think about it. In the meantime…let's just practice with the chanellers." Hiro nodded, complacent with that answer. It was a maybe. And a maybe could easily turn into a yes.

"Perfect, that's just fine with me," he smiled, reaching back to send the design to the 3D printer. Aria watched the machine in the corner snap to life, and begin the intricate process of weaving the exterior of the gauntlets out. They'd be sitting there a while, waiting. That was never good. "Soooo…why'd your parents stay in Los Angelosaka?" Hiro asked, and Aria instantly regretted telling him he had permission to ask her an awkward or painful question the other night.

"Umm…just, you know. Work and stuff," she said, trying to dodge the question.

"So they just sent you out alone? Man, Cass would never do that." He tried to imagine his over-protective Aunt allowing him to waltz off across Japanifornia all on his lonesome, and he nearly laughed out loud! That would never happen.

"Ah, well, you know. You're big news, Hiro. Child genius and all that. They knew you could help." Her lie sounded seamless enough, and she was relieved that Hiro was actually buying it.

"I'm no child genius," he said, in what Aria assumed was false modesty, though he cracked one of his wide, off-center grins. "I'm a man genius, actually."

"Oh…whatever!" Again with the blushing, Aria didn't know why this boy made her feel all flustered! This hadn't really ever happened to her before! Not that she was babyish, I was just that, for 18 years of her life, she'd just locked herself up in her room full of books. She'd never had a crush before; well, that wasn't true. She'd had crushes, but mostly on fictional characters. This was the first flesh-and-blood guy whom she wasn't related to that she'd spent so much time around. She couldn't help but feel nervous and flustered. Didn't help that Hiro was a real gem of a guy.

"You know," he said, breaking into her thoughts and pulling her back out into the world of the living. "When I was younger, I was kind of…well, a handful. I guess I still am. I didn't have a whole lot of friends, just my inventions. And Tadashi. And other bot fighters. But they weren't really my friends. I was leagues ahead of other kids my age, and people who could match me in smarts didn't usually want to hang out with a young kid like I was. So I was alone a lot. And then, after everything that happened, me and Gogo, Honey, Wasabi, Fred, we all just meshed so well together, but I always attributed it to all the stuff we went through together. How could you not grow close to people in that situation?" He paused, shaking his head minutely. "I guess I'd always been wondering, if Tadashi hadn't…well, if everything that happened, didn't happen, would I have been friends with them? I kinda think not. I was feeling a little down, to be honest, that I didn't know if I could make a friend on my own merit. And while I know you sought me out to get my help with a problem…I sort of feel like we're becoming friends, you know, organically? Like, maybe I am friend material." He looked sideways at Aria, gauging her reaction; he didn't want that to freak her out or make her think he was weird; it was just something he'd been thinking about recently. They'd known each other for only three days, and already, he felt so comfortable with her. It felt easy being around Aria. He didn't have to compete with her in knowledge, she wasn't the 'prodigy' type, and he didn't have to dumb himself down to be around her, she wasn't stupid. She was quiet, but sarcastic, wry, but warm. He really liked her. And he really liked that he was growing close to her. He liked friends.

"I felt kinda the same," she said, totally pink in the face, but not trying to hide it this time. "I'm not really very social on my own. Only when I'm forced to be. So, I'm not really glad I was magnetized, but…I'm sorta glad I had an excuse to meet you. If that doesn't sound cheesy or anything."

"Not at all." They both sat there, smiling at one another for a moment, but the calm comradery was shattered once the 3D printer had finished the first gauntlet, and made a rather abrupt 'It's ready' warning sound. "Sweet, it's finished! Time to thread and program this baby, and then we can test it out!"


	8. Chapter Eight - Bombshell

The sun was shining. Birds were singing! There was a general mood of happiness, lazily drifting through the streets of downtown San Fransokyo.

And Aria was a mess.

She's only brought so much stuff with her. One backpack, that was all. Of course Aunt Cass let her use their washer and dryer, but there was only so many times you could wear the same three shirts. 'Note to self,' she thought, as she put on her last new, clean shirt, 'bring bigger suitcases when you run away.'

But it wasn't just the clothes issue. Her hair was not cooperating that morning, and she had heavy purple bags under her eyes from being up all night with Hiro, testing out the prototype chanellors. All in all, she wasn't feeling too good that day. Too bad she was going with Hiro to his school to hang out with the gang.

"You'll love the lab," Hiro said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up onto the trolley behind him, just as it started to move.

"Yes, a bunch of people just dying to write a dissertation paper on me," she quipped sarcastically, "My dream come true."

"You sound just like me when Tadashi first brought me to SFIT. You'll see, it's pretty cool."

"You weren't always so interested in robotics?" She held onto one of the support poles of the trolley, seeing as all the seats were filled up, for dear life. She wasn't real good with things like balance, and she was afraid she'd be tossed off the jerky vehicle at any moment. Hiro, on the other hand, was holding on nonchalantly, pretty much casually hanging off the side of the trolley car.

"Oh, no, I was always interested in robotics," he corrected, "just not college. I didn't really have a direction after high school. I was convinced I was too smart for traditional education, so I didn't have many long-term goals. Tadashi changed all that, the first time he showed me the lab." He smiled, remembering how desperate he'd been to get into the robotics program. That seemed like so long ago; it had really only been five years.

"Huh; so maybe if I see it, I'll spontaneously become a genius, and be interested in robotics as well." She gave him a wry little smile, and he just laughed.

"Maybe." He shot another one of his crooked smiles at her, and she nearly lost her grip and tumbled off the trolley. Damn boy and his damn good looks.

"Uh…so, what are you working on now? At the lab, I mean?" she said, trying to act casual as she could feel a blush creep up on her.

"It's…haha, well, there's a lot." He shook his head, eyes glazing over slightly as he thought about the myriad projects he was working on. "I guess my main focus is Baymax. I've been working on upgrading him, patching through new procedures. I've expanded on his AI recently, too. But I've really been focusing on mass production and replicating his programming. I've also got this idea underway, for a sort of selective, wireless processor hookup."

"And, a selective wireless processor hookup would be…?" Aria asked, barely able to keep up.

"It'll be easier to show you once we get to the lab. You'll see," he said, turning just as the trolley rounded a corner, bringing SFIT into view on the horizon.

* * *

"Aria, Hiro!" Wasabi was the first to greet them as the pair walked through the heavy double doors, leaning back in his chair at the computer desk. "Late as usual, I see?"

"Aria's here!?" Honey shouted, peeking out of her station, her earphones still in and her voice several decibels too loud. Her eyes lit up once she saw the two of them, and rushed forward, encasing Aria in a much-too-sudden hug. "Aria! Oh, I'm so excited you decided to come visit us!"

"Honey Lemon! Keep it down!" Hiro laughed, grimacing as she shouted. He reached forward and yanked lightly on the cord to her earbuds, pulling them out of her ears. "You've really got to remember when you've got these things in!"

"Whoops! Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you guys!" She looped an arm through Aria's, and started to drag her along. "C'mon, Fred'll be happy to see you too!" Aria felt like recoiling, but her long-suppressed, under-developed social ability dictated that she should just go along with it. She just wasn't used to this much attention, from anyone.

Hiro hung back as Aria was towed along behind Honey Lemon, smiling as she shot him a frenzied glance. He realized she must have been way out of her element at the moment, but he was happy his friends liked her. They were a pretty good judge of character, he'd found over the years.

Well, most of his friends.

Gogo walked up and stood beside him, and almost unreadable expression on her face. It wasn't happiness, that was for sure.

"So, she tagged along?" she finally asked, looking at Hiro sideways.

"Honey invited her, remember?" he said, and Goo rolled her eyes.

"Right, right. How could I forget?"

"Why are you so annoyed with Aria? She's barely said two words to you." Hiro turned to his long-time friend and shot her a strange look. He couldn't help but feel a little personally hurt by Gogo's apparent rejection of Aria; he got along well with Aria, so seeing Gogo act so hostile towards her made him just a bit defensive of his new friend.

"I'm not annoyed with _her,_" she said, motioning to where Fred had just toppled Aria in a hug, "It's just…I don't like the situation. Something's fishy. I can feel it, something's off about this whole thing."

"What's off, exactly?"

"I don't know." She pursed her lips, eyes narrowing slightly. "But I'm gonna find out."

"Look, can' you just try to be nicer?" Hiro turned to face Gogo as he walked backwards towards where Aria was being helped up by Wasabi. "If you just let your wall down, you'd see that she's actually really sweet. The two of you would get along great, if you'd just let yourself relax."

"Look, Hiro, I won't tell you what to do, and you don't tell me what to do, okay?" She turned away from him, making her way back to her station. Hiro sighed, running his hand through his hair tiredly, before walking up to the others. Gogo could be so difficult sometimes.

"Aria, c'mon," he said, motioning her to follow him. "I wanna show you the processor hookup I was talking about."

"Okay!" She was all too happy to follow him and escape the over-exuberance of Honey and Fred. She liked them just fine, but they could be overwhelming at times. "Don't leave me alone with them!" she whispered when they were out of earshot, and Hiro let out a laugh.

"You'll get used to them, I promise!" Unlocking his office, which had once been Tadashi's, he let her in. "Here, check it out! Ow!" He hadn't been hurt, but as soon as he said 'ow', several small red cubes around the room blinked to life, and all at once, three replicas of Baymax started to inflate. The first to fully inflate stepped forward, and in Baymax's voice, started to speak.

"Hello. I am Baymax Alpha, your personal healthcare provider. I was alerted that you were in need of care when you said…'ow'." Hiro smiled sideways at Aria.

"Go ahead and scan me, Alpha," he said, and stood still as the replica did so.

"My scan shows no signs of injury. It did reveal that your hydration levels are low." As soon as he said this, the replica closest to Hiro's desk immediately responded, picking up a water bottle sitting on the surface. He handed it to 'Alpha', who then handed it to Hiro. "Water is the best source of hydration. It is recommended that you consume 92 oz of water per day for optimum hydration."

"Thank you, Alpha, Beta," He nodded to both robots. "Delta, could you scan my friend? She might be dehydrated as well."

"Oh, no, I don't think I need-" As Aria tried to protest, the third replica quickly scanned her, and she narrowed her eyes at Hiro. He just grinned.

"Scan complete. My scan shows minimal dehydration, but also elevated neurotransmitter and blood pressure levels. I recommend half-dose aspirin." As he said this, just like before, Beta began rummaging through the drawers of the desk. He eventually came up with a small white bottle.

"Half-dose aspirin can commonly be bought over the counter." He said, walking up to hand it to her.

"Thanks guys," Hiro said. "We are satisfied with our care." As the three large white robots returned to their charging blocks and deflated, Aria tried to make sense of what she'd just seen. "So? What do you think?"

"So…they're all hooked up together, then?" she asked. "As soon as one of them thinks something, the other can go do it?"

"Yeah, something like that. But it wouldn't just be them. Each unit could potentially hook up with any other units in a designated area. They can already communicate pretty flawlessly with humans, so I figured they need to communicate flawlessly with each other as well, without actually having to give commands." He was grinning so proudly, that Aria couldn't help but smile back. And why wouldn't she? This was really amazing technology.

"This is really great, Hiro," she said, "I can't believe just one person could develop that kind of thing!"

"Well, it's not really just me." He walked over to his desk, and picked up a framed picture. "Tadashi laid the groundwork. I'm just following his idea." Looking over his shoulder, Aria caught a glimpse of the picture; him and Tadashi, significantly younger. Both of them looked so carefree. Hiro still looked rather carefree, but it wasn't exactly the same. There was a bit of an edge to his expression now.

"I bet he'd be proud, though." Hiro looked up at Aria, his smile growing.

"Yeah. I hope."

The 'moment' that was currently happening between them was shattered, though, when the door to Hiro's office was unexpectedly thrown open. Fred stood in the doorway, a somewhat peculiar expression on his face.

"Dudes!" he said, "You gatta come see this!"

"What?" Hiro asked, glancing at Aria, before following him. Fred led them out through the lab, towards Fred' corner, where he usually hung around while the others were working. Although, corner may have been the wrong word; perhaps 'pit' was more appropriate? A TV screen sat against the far wall, DVD cases for various superhero movies littered around the base, and the gang was huddled around the screen. It wasn't until Fred shoved his way through, letting Aria and Hiro see what everyone was watching, did Aria's face begin to fall.

"Aria's on TV!" Fred announced. On the screen, a reporter was speaking in front of a live video feed of several men, who looked like doctors and researchers, being led out of a hospital in handcuffs. Those men looked all too familiar to Aria.

"…illegal biomedical cover up of human trials." The reporter was saying, as she listed the men's offences. "As of now, records for only two patients who underwent the dangerous medical experimentation could be found." As she spoke, two pictures flashed on the screen, one of Aria, which had been taken at the hospital, and the other of an unknown man. The picture had been taken at Aria's sickest, so her cheeks and eyes were sunken, but there was no mistaking it; that was Aria. "But both patients are missing. If anyone has any information regarding these patients, who's records only indicated them as 'Tsukino' and 'Ome', please call your local police immediately.

Slowly, each pair of eyes in front of the TV turned to Aria, who had gone pale white. There was a prolonged silence, before Gogo finally broke and stabbed a finger at her.

"I knew it!" she said, scowling. "I knew something was up with this!"

"Gogo-" Honey started, but was immediately shushed.

"You've got the entire city of Los AngelOsaka looking for you?"

"I…I, uh…" Aria didn't really know what she was supposed to say. Her throat felt like it was closing up, and her eyes darted from face to face, assessing their expressions. Almost everyone looked utterly confused, besides Gogo. Hers was nothing but vitriol.

"Aria?" She turned, as Hiro shook his head, eyes wide. "What's going on? I thought…I thought you aid your parents knew where you were?"

"…They don't," she finally said, looking at the ground. "I ran away. I had to! There was no other way-"

"So, you lied to us," Gogo interrupted. "Who the hell even are you?"

"My name IS Aria," she asserted, daring to look Gogo in the eyes, "and I WAS magnetized in an experimental cancer treatment! But you don't understand; after things started going wrong, they didn't want my family going to the media! They didn't want this getting out! They paid us to keep quiet, and my parents…they were happy to take the money and tell me to chin up and deal with it." Her lower lips started to quiver. "But I can't! I needed help! Hiro and you guys were the only ones I knew could help me!"

"Why should we believe any of that!?" Gogo had leaned down, face close to Aria's, and the younger woman began to back away. She was no match for Gogo's intensity.

But Hiro was.

"Back off!" he said, stepping in front of Aria, to go nose-to-nose with Gogo. The shorter of the two looked taken aback, flinching backwards.

"Hiro, she-"

"-She needs our help, Gogo. You saw the report. Are you just gonna turn your back on someone, when you're one of the only people that could do something to help them?" His expression was stern, but neither would back down, not completely.

"I told you I knew something was up!" she hissed.

"And I'm telling you now; I don't care." Aria stood, trying to suppress her shakiness, though it was hardly working. She hadn't wanted this; she'd just wanted to get unmagnetized! She hadn't wanted to pit anyone against each other! Breaking away from their staring match, Hiro turned around, and took Aria's wrist. "C'mon. Let's go. We'll talk more when we get back to the café." She allowed Hiro to lead her away, feeling sheepish, unhappy, embarrassed, and helpless. The others were cemented in place, and just watched them go.


	9. Chapter Nine - Apology

Aria followed sheepishly behind Hiro as he stalked down the hall towards the elevator. She kept opening her mouth to say something, but always came up short. Besides, Hiro didn't really look like he was in any mood to listen.

"…You're mad at me too?" she asked quietly, peeking sideways at him as the elevator doors shut, enclosing the two of them. Hiro didn't look at her, but his eyebrows knitted together. He'd appeared to have been on her side, he defended her, but now he was angry? He seemed like a pretty simple guy, but this had Aria confused.

"Yes. No. …I don't know," he finally said, running a hand through his hair and tipping his head back. He let out a sigh, and glanced at Aria. She couldn't help but feel small as he looked down at her. "I get why you lied, I do, it's just…you can understand, right? Why I don't like being lied to? Ad right to my face, no less!" He threw his hands up, before turning, and leaning his forehead against the wall of the elevator. They hadn't yet begun to move, and Aria gingerly reached out to press the 'Ground' floor button. Hiro didn't look up until the carriage jerked to life.

"I'm sorry," was all she could say. She really was. She hadn't meant for this to come out like this, and she knew it was going to drive a stake inbetween Hiro and the rest of the gang. Somewhere deep inside of her was a little bit happy that he and Gogo seemed to be on totally different wavelengths, but she suppressed that thought for now.

"It's okay," he sighed, standing straight again, and shoving his hands in his pockets. "We all do…drastic things, when we're desperate. I can understand that." He had a somewhat far-away look in his eye as he said this, and she wondered what he meant by that. She didn't ask, of course. She was in no position to be asking probing questions like that.

"So…what now?" she asked, feeling smaller than ever. She wanted to stay, and continue to practice with the regulator and channellers, but if Hiro wanted her gone, then she'd go. He looked quizzically at her.

"What do you mean?" he replied, quirking up an eyebrow.

"Well, now that the cat's out of the bag, should I go?"

"What? Just when we finished developing the channellors? No, no, I want you to stay!" His expression swung to worry, and Aria's heart fluttered, if only briefly. "I mean, that is, if you want to. If you'd rather go, I'm not gonna stop you, but…I'd really like to help you the best I can. And it won't be the best unless you've got complete control over this thing." Gosh, he was so earnest. 'Damn hormones,' Aria thought, her heart beating up into her throat. You would have thought he'd presented her with a ring, threaded onto the stem of a rose for how hard her heart was pumping! But maybe it wasn't just that she harbored the teensiest crush on Hiro; she was devastatingly relieved that he wasn't going to make her leave! She felt like her chest could burst from relief, and all she wanted to do was hug him! And before she could stop herself, that's just what she did.

"I want to stay," she breathed, not trusting her voice not to crack. "Thank you, Hiro. It means a lot that you'd stick with me, even after I lied." Hiro was a little shocked by this outburst; Aria didn't strike him as the type to freely hand out hugs like this, but he rolled with it, and wrapped his arms around her as well.

"Hey, what're friends for?" he said, and the two broke apart as the elevator doors whooshed open. He motioned for her to follow, and he lead her out of the main building lobby and down the flight of stairs to the campus walkway. "The others will come around, some sooner than others. Don't worry. Just don't lie anymore. We want the truth, Aria, even if it's difficult to say."

"I promise," she said, and she meant it. "No more lies, no more keeping things from you guys." Over his shoulder, Hiro smiled at her, and she just about melted, for more reasons than just one. 'He really is a gem', she thought.

* * *

"Okay, Baymax, scan her." Hiro stood with his arms crossed, opposite Aria, who was just pulling on the channeller gloves. Baymax's optical camera's flitted briefly over her body, and just like that, the scan was done.

"Scan complete. Low white blood cell count and compromised immune system detected. Mutations on the molecular level suggest remissive cancer." He was basically repeating the last scan he'd done of her. "My sensors detect unusually high levels of magnetic radiation."

Okay. Baymax, just keep monitoring the radiation. Keep an eye on her brain, too." Hiro nodded to Aria, holding up a small metal statue; it was a waving good-luck cat. How fitting. "Concentrate, Aria. Channel the radiation. Concentrate on the statue." He coached her as she stood, planting her feet firmly on the ground. With her regulator on, nothing else in the room was flying towards her, but she lifted her hand, palm out, towards the cat. She could do this. She could do this. Hiro was right here, and if anything went wrong, he'd fix it. She could do this.

Her fingers twitched slightly as she concentrated, eyes narrowing towards her target. She didn't know exactly what she was supposed to be thinking, maybe 'fly, statue!' or 'come here, metal!' or something like that, but all she could really focus on was the image of the trinket, and imagining it flying towards her. 'Oh, please work!' she thought.

It was slow. At first, she didn't even notice it. But slowly, she began to feel a weird sort of pressure in her fingertips. It was like the glove was contracting against her hand, but that wasn't it. She didn't know exactly what was causing it, but it wasn't long before the feeling was spreading across her palm, and up over her wrist and forearm. She opened her mouth in surprise, shocked at the sensation, but before any noise could escape her lips, the waving cat began to shuffle in Hiro's palm. It rattled slightly, until finally, it lifted from his hand, and flew about halfway between the two of them.

The weird pressure feeling disappeared in an instant, though, and as soon as it did, the cat fell to the ground, right in the middle of where Hiro and Aria stood. Both sets of eyes were trained on it, and when they looked up to meet each other, Hiro broke into a smile.

"Look who just moved metal with her mind!" he said jokingly, and Aria just stood open-mouthed. This was crazy, she had done that!? It had actually worked!? She didn't know whether to feel excited or scared or shocked or what, but she was feeling something! She let out a short, shocked laugh, and then looked at her hands.

"I can hardly believe it!" she said quietly. "I did that…"

"Yeah you did! We'll need more practice, but…this is gonna be great!" He walked up, holding his fist out. Before Aria could fist-bump him back, though, Baymax beat her to the punch.

"Ba la la la," he said, his hand rebounding off of Hiro's in his signature move. They were still for a moment, and then, Aria was the first to break into laughter, closely followed by Hiro. "I do not see what is humorous," Baymax said, which only caused the laughter to grow.

"Oh man!...Haha, okay, back to work!" Hiro wiped a tear from his eye and looked back to Baymax. "Okay buddy, what were the readings you took?"

"My scanners were unable to accurately measure the magnetic fluxuations," he said. "Approximate readings show that radiation seemed to concentrate in the prefrontal cortex of the braid, before shifting to the extremities."

"Just like I thought," Hiro replied.

"What does that mean?" Aria asked.

"The regulator was doing it's job, concentrating and containing the magnetic radiation in your brain. But once the channellers are introduced, they can basically sort of co-pilot the radiation, channeling it into whatever part of the body they're attached to." He motioned to her feet. "If you had boots, it'd channel it through your feet. A whole suit, and it'd use your whole body as a channel." He wiggled his eyebrows up and down, obviously referencing the suit he'd designed for her and shown her the day before. Aria rolled her eyes.

"I'm still thinking about it," she said, "though after today, I don't think the others would be too thrilled to have me on the team."

"Forget them!" Hiro said, flopping down into the nearest swivel chair and grinning up at her. "I want you on the team! And as team leader, what I say goes."

"How very dictatorial of you," she said sarcastically, though her insides were dancing. 'He wants me on the team! He wants me!' she thought. He smirked.

"I see myself more as, 'President for Life'. Anyway. We should probably deal with the others sooner than later, yeah?" He plucked his phone from his pocket. He was about to text the others, to come over so they could all talk, and he could show off Aria's semi-mastery of her magnetism, when he paused, taking in Aria's apprehensive expression. "C'mon. It'll be okay. I'm here. I'm all the back up you'll need." He smiled that crooked smile of his. "Trust me."

"…Okay." She rubbed her arm tensely as he texted, biting her lower lip. She was unsure, but she did trust Hiro. If he said it would be kay…then she'd just have to believe it.

* * *

"Aria, are you okay?" Honey Lemon and Wasabi showed up first, and Honey, caring as always, laid a hand gingerly on Aria's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine. A little…shaken up, you know. But I'm okay." She smiled, which was returned by Honey. She was glad she was so nice; if Gogo had shown up first, Aria might have keeled over from anxiety right there. With Honey and Hiro in her corner, she was a little more able to face her rival. Again, Honey Lemon hugged her, but it was more reassuring this time, and Aria hugged back.

"It's a lot to take in. We didn't really know what to say." Wasabi stepped up next to Honey as the two girls separated, and shrugged.

"Gogo seemed to be voicing what everyone was thinking," he said, somewhat apologetically, "but in the wrong way. You know we don't feel that hostile towards you, right?"

"Yeah, I figured. I knew Gogo wasn't very fond of me, and that's why she was so…abrasive." Hiro was standing behind her a bit. He had been ready to jump in at her defense if he'd needed to, but it didn't look like Wasabi and Honey were on a war path.

"You did lie to us, though," Honey pointed out mildly. "We wouldn't have turned you away if you'd just told us the truth in the first place, Aria."

"We're not monsters. We're…well, we're super-heroes! It's kind of our thing, you know? Help those in need, and what-not?" Aria smiled up at the two, thankful that they were being so understanding.

"I know that now. I'm sorry. I was panicked and scared, and didn't know what to do or expect. But I promise, no more lies. I'm done with that." Honey exchanged another one of those peculiar looks with Wasabi, before they both nodded. They seemed to be running on the same brain wavelength.

"We forgive you. Gogo's not gonna be so easy to convince."

"That's why I'm hovering," Hiro said, causing Honey to laugh. "She needs to step back and look at the bigger picture here, and if she won't do it by choice, well, I'm here to make her see reason. Plus also…this is kinda my house." The three of them chuckled, and devolved into hushed mutterings about Gogo and her flare up earlier, and Aria just observed. They were such good friends. That little something in the back of her brain briefly wished she could stay indefinitely and become part of their friends group as well. But she knew she couldn't be here much longer. She'd have to go back eventually.

"Where's Fred?" Hiro asked, breaking Aria out of her daydreaming. Wasabi shrugged.

"He texted Honey saying he'd be along a little later, but he didn't say why," he said, and Honey nodded, backing him up. A puzzled look crossed Hiro's face, but it didn't last long; a motorcycle engine could be heard cutting off outside the garage. "There she is," Wasabi muttered, apprehensive of what was about to take place. Hiro lifted the garage door, and Aria watched as Gogo stepped off her bike, pulling her helmet off her head.

"Gogo," Hiro said, as a greeting, but also a warning. The girl did not wear a pleasant look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. I only came because Honey called and begged me too. I'm still pissed." She shot a glare at Aria, who physically shrunk back into the garage.

"Well, whatever the reason, we gatta talk," he said. She pushed past Hiro, and came to stand just inside the garage. "Listen, we've all forgiven Aria for lying; it was a mistake, she admits it. She was scared, and she wasn't making great decisions. We all know that, and forgive her. Why are you still so angry about it?"

"I knew there was something off about the situation, and you didn't listen," she spat, "And then when you had your proof that I was right, you still didn't listen! How thick are you, Hiro? She's a liar!" She stabbed a finger at her. "You of all people shouldn't be able to trust a liar!"

"Don't say that!" Hiro's brow furrowed, but he tried to take his expression back to merely 'concerned'. "Gogo, you forgave me! After what I did to Baymax, what I almost did to Callighan, you forgave me! How is this any different?" Gogo opened her mouth, about to spit more vitriol, but she was stopped in her tracks; her insult died in her throat. He was right, and she couldn't argue that. She had forgiven him, for worse. And perhaps she was being a bit unreasonable.

But Gogo was nothing if not proud. Closing her mouth and scowling, and glared at him a second longer, before breaking gaze, and looking towards Aria, who looked like she was trying to blend in with the wall.

"Fine. I forgive you," she said, though it was clipped, and not very forgiving-sounding at all. But Aria nodded just the same, swallowing hard. Even if Gogo didn't mean it, it was still something, that she was just saying it. That was something, and Aria could live with it.

"That wasn't so hard," Hiro said, nudging her with his elbow, but Gogo just turned away.

"Whatever. Are we done here? I'm leaving." Honey tried to protest as Gogo stalked back out towards her bike, but Wasabi held his arm out to stop her, and shook his head.

"Not worth it," he said, and Honey nodded. But Gogo was stopped, however, when a vehicle drove up and blocked the alleyway exit. A very long vehicle, actually.

"A limo?" Aria asked, and as if to answer her question, out of the back stepped Fred, to her vast confusement.

"Hey dudes, sorry I'm late!" he called, nodding towards the front of the vehicle. "Around the block, Heathcliff, thanks!" Gogo rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Fred. What's up, what was keeping you?" Hiro asked as his friend approached. Aria noticed a tablet under one of Fred's arms, and he pulled it out, tapping the screen a few times.

"Sorry, but something I saw on that report was bugging me, so I had to go home and do a little research." He motioned the rest of the gang to come closer, and held his tablet out for them to see. "Those pictures they showed, of Aria and that other dude, I wanted to know who he was. Maybe he's just as magnetized, and needs help, you know? We are heroes after all!"

"What did the report say his name was? Home? Cone?" Honey walked up, eyes scanning the small screen.

"Ome," Fred supplied, scrolling through the websites he had book-marked. "Here's his pictures on the Los AngelOsaka Times website. He's missing as well, so I did a bit of digging, but nothing came up. Since Aria was keeping some stuff from us, I figured we'd better ask her if she knew anything." And just like that, all eyes were on Aria again. A deep blush spread across her face.

"Tell us everything," Hiro said, but there was no malice or mocking in his tone. He honestly just wanted to know what she knew. And that put her a bit at ease. Taking a deep breath, she spoke.


	10. Chapter Ten - First Proposition

The apartment was dark. It was obvious no one had been in it for a while now. Still, it was a mess. Drawers were pulled out and laying across the kitchen floor, silverware in every nook and cranny imaginable. The fridge was laying on it's side, it's doors hanging open. Pictures were strewn across the ground, glass from the frames shattered. In several places, large holes could be seen in the walls, and bolts from the studs in the wall lay on the ground beneath them. Even the handles on the doors were messed up, most ripped out of the wood or hanging by a single screw.

Stacks of newsprint littered the living room. Most of it was crumpled, like it had been discarded; sports sections, entertainment, the comics, the crosswords, coupons. But several of the front pages were heavily marked up with a red marker. If you were to go through each page, you'd see names and dates circled, even pictures. All the stories pertained to one subject; the recent floodgate of illegal activity that had been surrounding the Los AngelOsaka biomedical human trials scandal.

There was one piece of newsprint in particular, though, that had been written on the most. On it were two large, blown up pictures of the victims of the unethical human trials; a girl, named only as 'Tsukino', and a man, 'Ome'. The picture of the girl was circled several times, and had several large arrows pointing towards her. Underneath, the words 'Must Find' were written.

It would be another three days before the apartment door was kicked down by Los AngelOsaka police forces, and by then, the owner would be long gone.

* * *

"His name was Rino Ome," Aria said, holding Fred's tablet. She looked at the face of the other patient, eyebrows knitted together. "He was the other patient who underwent human neurological trials. His treatment started earlier than mine did, though. I'm not really sure what kind of cancer he had, but I guess I always just assumed it was brain cancer, like mine." Hiro came to stand beside her, looking down at the screen she held in her hands. He reached out and scrolled through the article the picture was attached to.

"It doesn't say what kind here, either," he mumbled.

"His treatment was probably a little worse than mine was. I was the second guinea pig, so I'm sure I got a more refined version of the procedures. He probably went through much more trial-and-error than I did." She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I only ever saw him in person once, when the two of us were signing our non-disclosure agreements. He didn't say anything to me. He hardly even looked at me."

"And now he's missing too?" Honey Lemon asked, and Aria shrugged.

"I guess so. I can't blame him. I ran away to find you guys, but maybe he just had to get away from everyone. Or at least any metal. It's terrifying, when you're pulling doorknobs out of doors and nails out of the wall. I can relate to wanting to get away from it." Gogo snatched the tablet from Aria's hands, and scrolled through quickly, skimming.

"Is that it?" she asked, giving Aria the side-eye. "Is that even the truth?"

"It is, I swear!" Aria replied, looking to Hiro. He was lost in thought, it seemed. "I didn't even say two words to the guy. He did seem…very broody, though. You know. Quietly angry."

"I would be too," Wasabi said, as Honey nodded in agreement.

"We've gatta find him," Hiro said, breaking out of his thoughts. Aria shot him a questioning glance.

"Why? He obviously doesn't want to be found. All of Los AngelOsaka is looking for him."

"The only reason you knew to try to find us is because you followed our stories in the papers, right?" Hiro asked, and to this Aria blushed slightly, and nodded. "Well, if he doesn't know who to turn to, who could help him, he's just running blindly. So we've got to find him! If I can help you, I can help him."

"All right!" Fred said, pumping a fist in the air. "Super hero road trip! Lemme get my suit!"

"Not so fast! Gogo held a hand up, halting Fred mid-stride. She walked up to Hiro, looking up to meet his eye. "Is this really a good idea?" she asked. Her face was set in the regular scowl she wore, but Aria wasn't totally fooled. Her voice didn't have the hard, angry edge it did when she was addressing Aria. This was more of an honest question, than a challenge to Hiro's suggestion. Hiro nodded, resolute in his idea.

"Aria was getting more powerful by the day," Hiro said, "without us, she could have caused tons of trouble. I'm talking, pulling cars off the road into buildings kind of trouble. Pulling steel gerters from building foundations kind of trouble. And look at her now," he motioned to Aria. "She's harmless. Better than harmless; she's got real, usable power here. I've been able to turn a powerful negative into a positive with a lot of potential! We owe it to Ome to try and do the same. Before he has a chance to get powerful enough to hurt someone."

"I'm with Hiro," Honey Lemon said, coming to stand beside him. "The thought of someone, alone and scared, with powers out of their control is too much!"

"Me too," Wasabi said, and Fred nodded vigorously as well. Gogo's eyes flitted between her friend's faces, and she sighed, giving in.

"Alright. If you all think it's a good idea…it must be," she said, and Honey squealed and hugged her.

"Well, if that's the case, then how come you didn't think my invisible sandwich was a good idea?" Fred asked?

"Because everyone else thought it was stupid, because it is," Gogo said. Aria chuckled, as the tension began to loosen in the air. But there was still a little knot in her stomach.

"Hiro," she said, tugging at his shirt sleeve, pulling him a little ways away from the others. He cocked an eyebrow, puzzled, though still followed.

"What's up?" he asked, taking note of Aria's worried expression.

"I don't know about this," Aria said, "For once, I sort of agree with Gogo. I don't know if finding Ome is such a good idea."

"Why?" he asked, genuinely confused. He would have thought Aria would have been the first to agree with him. Surely, she could understand the need to help Ome more than anyone else? "Unless you know something else about him?"

"No! No, no more keeping things from you, remember?" she said, shaking her head. "It's just…I feel uneasy about it. I don't know if it would be better to just let sleeping dogs lie? I found you because I wanted to, Hiro. If he's hiding, it's for a good reason."

"Aria, you've gatta trust me on this," Hiro said, taking both of her hands. Well, that set her more on edge than ever! "I know this is the right thing to do."

"I do trust you, Hiro," she said, looking away. "…But I don't think I trust Ome."

* * *

'In, two three four. Hold, two three four. Out, two three four. In, two three four…' Aria stood, feet shoulder-length apart, just breathing. It was quiet, of course it was. It was the middle of the night. Hiro was asleep at his desk, head resting on one arm, and his back rose and fell steadily. He'd been dozing off for a while now, too tired to continue to code the boots he was working on. Aria didn't blame him, he'd been working so hard, had so much on his plate right now.

But she couldn't sleep. Her mind was too riled up; she was thinking about her powers, Gogo, the discovery, but most of all, she was thinking about Ome. She couldn't explain it, she just had a bad feeling about the whole thing. She could really understand Gogo's feelings, now; this wasn't a good situation. And so, here she was, out in the driveway outside the open garage, donning her regulator and her channellors, just breathing. Concentrating. Focusing.

It was easy to focus like this. No noises, no lights, nothing to distract her. Hiro was always a distraction, but with him asleep, she could really get to work trying to master this ability. Her hands hung at her sides, loose and relaxed. Her head was level with the horizon, her eyes closed. She could feel the midnight breeze ruffle her bobbed hair by her ears, and again, she started another breathing cycle. It all felt very surreal. She was very attuned to the blackness and silence of the night.

Her hand rose, almost of it's own accord, with her palm facing outward. This time, it didn't require so much mental effort; she could feel the power concentrating in her limb, and it was almost too easy to exercise that power; her hand flexed almost infinitesimally, and immediately, one of the nails in the nearby fence flew from it's place, imbedded in the board, right to her palm. Just that single nail. She could feel it, flying through the air to her hand, and once she'd caught it, she reigned in the power, and let it go. It dropped to the ground, just like that.

'This is incredible,' she thought, looking at her hand, almost admiringly. 'I can just feel it so much better like this, when nothing's bothering me or distracting me. It feels…almost natural.' She let a small smile creep onto her face, and tried again, though this time, as soon as she felt another nail whizzing through the air, she held that power, halting it, but not withdrawing it. The nail hung rigidly in the air, halfway between her and the fence.

'Back in you go,' she thought, this time, pushing the force back out through her hand, instead of pulling it in, and the nail whizzed backwards, back to the fence post. Her control over her power was improving drastically, but wasn't yet so fine-tuned; the nail hit the wood without going back into it's hole, and bonked off of it, falling back to the ground. 'I still have a ways to go,' she thought, 'but it's getting there.'

"Very good."

It wasn't Hiro who had spoken. Wasn't Baymax, or even Aunt Cass. The voice was incredibly soft, but low. It sounded almost musical, and had a hint of amusement to it. It wasn't a voice Aria had ever heard before. And when she spun around, startled, she couldn't even see the face of the man who'd spoken. He was too far into the shadows of the alleyway.

"Who are you!?" Aria squeaked, her voice barely able to rise above a whisper. Shock and fear slowly began to spread across her body, starting at her fingertips, and nearing her chest as the figure chuckled softly, but did not move. "Who are you?" she asked again, her voice sharp from fear. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Now now," the man said, raising an arm, and pointing towards the garage. "Wouldn't want to wake your little friend, would you?" he asked, but that was exactly what Aria wanted, she moved to take a step closer to the garage, Hiro's name on the tip of her tongue, when the man tisked behind her. "Tsk, tsk, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You don't want to drag him into trouble if you don't have to, right?"

'I also don't want to drag myself into trouble alone!' Aria thought, but realized he may be right. Hiro had done so much for her already. If this weirdo was targeting her, there was no reason to bring Hiro into it. Not when she had this newfound power at her disposal. 'I can take him,' she thought to herself, her fear quelled slightly. 'I've got this. He's a creep…and I've got all this power in my corner.'

"Who are you," she repeated one last time, turning back towards him, and taking a step closer, "and what do you want with me?" Her fists clenched, tensing for anything she might have to do. The man just laughed.

"Relax. I'm not here to hurt anyone. Quite the opposite, really." He took a step out of the shadows, though his face was still obscured by his hood. "So calm down, Aria Tsukino. No need to clench your fists so hard." She couldn't see it, but he was smirking. Immediately she unraveled her fists, shocked that he knew her full name.

"I'm not gonna ask again!" she said, face falling into a scowl.

"I think you may already know who I am," the man said, and slowly made his way closer. As he did, he pulled his hood off. And he was right, his face was quite familiar.

"Ome," she whispered, shocked to see him in the flesh. "You…you've been missing. We were just talking about it…" Her mouth hung open, and Ome smiled wider.

"Who isn't? But I'm not here to talk about me," he held a hand to his chest, before flourishing it out, to indicate Aria, "I'm here about you. Look at you, all outfitted in prototype tech. Very futuristic-looking, very chic," he said mockingly, as he started to circle her. Aria shrunk away from him, feeling very much like a seal, being circled by an orca. "A shame you needed it, really. Oh, I'm not talking about the magnetic radiation…it's a shame you needed technology to learn to control it."

Aria bristled at this, her expression growing angrier. Ome stopped his circling, and held his hand in front of his own face, as if examining it. Then, without warning, he held it out towards the two nails Aria had left on the ground. With a few sharp hand movements, the nails lifted slowly, before flying back to their original positions, imbedding themselves perfectly back into the fence posts.

"You're being held back by that tech, Aria," he said, in almost a sing-song voice. "This of what you could do with that power, if you only learned to control it organically…"

"I don't want to DO anything with it!" she snapped, "I WANT to be normal again!"

"Then why were you practicing like that?" Color instantly jumped to her cheeks, but she thanked God it was too dark to tell. He was right, though. She was trying to control it better, but for what? She kept telling herself it was to subdue it, get it completely under control and pack it away. But was it really? Was she really considering joining Big Hero 6? Ome saw the confusion flash through her eyes, and seized upon it. "You're a smart girl, Aria. Think of the possibilities!"

"…There are no possibilities," she said slowly, looking back up at Ome's face.

"Oh, but there are!" He chuckled, before stooping, and placing a hand on the ground. Aria took a step back, but nothing seemed to happen. "Come, feel the ground beneath your feet. Come on." Squinting cautiously at him, Aria slowly stooped, setting her palm on the pavement. "Without the glove," he said, nodding to the channeller. She was reluctant to take it off, but when she did, and set her palm back on the ground, she looked at Ome quizzically.

"What, the concrete's cold?" she asked, and Ome shook his head.

"Concentrate, Aria. Feel the ground. Feel deep beneath the concrete, the soil. Let your powers extend down, all the way down." He closed his eyes, and while Aria felt that it might have been a mistake to follow suit, she too closed her eyes, concentrating. At first, she felt nothing but the cold pavement of the driveway. But slowly, as her breathing steadied, and she let her focus leave the alleyway, and become once again entwined with the gentle silence of the night, she could indeed feel more. It was like she could feel every vein on the Earth's surface, and then some. Down, deeper than the crust even, and she could suddenly detect something grating, or shifting deep below them. "Feel the plates of the Earth move, the subtle shift of the electromagnetic field. It puts the hair on the back of your neck on end, doesn't it?" Aria's other hand immediately flew to her neck, and he was right. This was eerie.

"What…?" she asked vaguely, not knowing what exactly to say to this. She felt like she could feel everything.

"Our entire planet is infused with the same kind of power, Aria," Ome explained, opening his eyes to watch her marvel at the feeling of everything. "We have been given the extraordinary gift of perceiving that power. And if you let me help you, I can help you extend that gift, to manipulate that power." Aria's eyes flew open and she gasped, and as she did so, Ome's hand once again touched the ground, and an almost imperceptible movement travelled down from his shoulder all the way through his fingertips like a wave. Immediately, Aria's stomach dropped, and her hand lifted from the concrete, but it wasn't just her hand. To her shock, she could no longer keep herself pinned to the very surface of the Earth, and her scream died in her throat. Her eyes darted to the garage, where Hiro and the rest of his tech in the garage was similarly untethered from the Earth.

In the same instant, Aria fell back to the ground, landing hard on her knees with a groan. Everything that Ome had allowed to lift from the ground dropped as well, including Hiro, and the jolt shocked him awake. He swiveled his head around in disorientation and surprise, and when he saw Aria on the ground, at the feel of a man who looked vaguely familiar, he jumped to his feet.

"Aria!" he shouted, running over. He was stopped in his tracks as Ome turned to face him, though, and he realized where he knew that face from. "Ome!?"

"Hiro, stay back!" Aria said, shakily getting up to her feet. "What the hell was that!?"

"Impressive, no?" Ome looked quite proud of himself, and crossed his arms. "I could teach you as well, you know. Just get rid of these useless do-dads. Together, we could be unstoppable."

"I don't want to BE unstoppable!" Aria said, stepping away from him. "Ome, this isn't right! Please, Hiro could help you-"

"I don't need help!" Ome's somewhat smug, genial manner vanished in an instant, and his smirk was replaced with an absolute snarl. "The last time anyone 'helped' me, they made me a freak! Isolated me from my family to keep me quiet! They made me insane!" His hands balled into fists, and as he took a step closer, Hiro moved inbetween him and Aria. "I'M the only one who can help me! And I have! Ha ha! I've helped myself to all the power their little mistake has offered me!"

"Calm down, we aren't-" Hiro started, but Ome's expression darkened further, and he grabbed hold of the front of Hiro's shirt.

"This doesn't concern you," he said darkly, shoving Hiro to the side. Hiro was about to protest this treatment, but Ome's arm didn't lower, and with his palm extended towards Hiro, he flexed his arm again, causing the boy to go flying backwards. Aria let out a soundless shriek, covering her mouth in both worry and amazement.

"How…he's…he's not magnetic," Aria stuttered, looking from where Hiro lay, tangled with the desk he'd collided with, to Ome's hardened expression. "How did you-"

"This is exactly the kind of thing I can teach you," Ome said, his voice going soft again. "This isn't your run-of-the-mill magnetism we have, my dear. This can be so much more than some cute little party trick. If you'll only let me help you…" He straightened up, holding out his hand for her to take. As if she'd accept it. Her eyes lingered on Ome for a moment longer, before she turned, and sprinted to where Hiro had landed. Baymax had already inflated from his charging pod, and was helping the boy to his feet.

"Hiro!" she cried, grabbing his arm as he stumbled back to his knees. "Hiro, are you alright?"

"What a shame." Ome shook his head, staring at the ground. "But it's like they say…if you're not with me…you're against me." He afforded one last look to the girl who could have been his prodigy, before turning, and strolling back out into the alleyway. Not before Baymax could get a good look at him, though.

"He's getting…ow…away," Hiro moaned, trying again to stand, leaning heavily on Aria's shoulder.

"Hiro, we're not chasing after him," Aria said quietly, pulling him over to the couch, and dropping him onto it. "Lay down, let Baymax look you over."

"What…what was he?" Hiro looked at the darkness in which Ome had escaped through, grasping at straws for explanations.

"I don't know," she admitted, moving so Baymax could scan Hiro. "He…he disrupted gravity, I think. And then, with you…I just don't know, Hiro." She watched as Baymax listed off his injuries, thankfully nothing too serious. But now she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hiro was right. They did need to find Ome. If not to help him…then to apprehend him before he hurt someone. On purpose.


	11. Chapter Eleven - Flight

Aria swallowed hard. The mirror was no her friend today, but then again, when was it ever? She felt ridiculous. Sure, she agreed to try the damn thing on, but now that she was wearing it, she whole-heartedly regretted it. She didn't even know how to put half of this armor on!

"Where do these pieces even go?" she said to herself, holding up several long pieces of the burnished orange armor. She felt like this probably shouldn't have been so complicated, she was smart, she should be able to figure this out! "Maybe Baymax can help me. Doe he even know how these parts go on?"

"Aria, c'mon, how does it fit?" Hiro was leaning against the bathroom door, impatiently waiting for Aria to emerge. He'd finally convinced her to try on the suit he'd designed for her, in light of…recent events. She'd agreed that she probably would need more protection than regular clothes if they were gonna track down Ome. But she'd been hiding in the bathroom for a while now. "I wanna seeee!" he whined, like a kid, and behind the door, Aria stifled a small smile.

"I look stupid," she said lamely, reluctant to show him. "And I don't know how some of this armor goes on. Ug, why'd you make it so complicated?"

"Well, come out and I'll help you. You got the under armor on, right?" Aria frowned, tugging at the stretchy black synthetic fabric that covered her from neck to toe.

"…Yeah," she finally replied, and let out a long sigh. "Hiro, I'm a simple girl. Jeans and a tshirt, that's all I need. I feel like Catwoman's fashion-blind sister in this!" She scowled as she heard Hiro stifle a chuckle. "Don't laugh!"

"C'mon, Aria, I can't help if you don't come out. Besides, I'm sure you look fine!" There was a long pause, and when she didn't immediately open the door, he continued. "More than fine. It probably looks great on you. But I'll never know, because you won't come out!"

"Okay! Okay, fine!" The doorknob turned slowly, the lock clicking out of place, and she finally emerged, her face red and her shoulder's hunched. "Happy?" she asked.

"Very!" Hiro reached for the armful of armor she had. "Here, let me help you. You've got the chest plate on upside down, you know." She bristled, her mouth puckering into a pout.

"Well, I didn't know!" she said defensively. "Excuse me for never needing to wear armor in my normal everyday life!" Hiro laughed at this, and held up one of the longer pieces Aria had been struggling with earlier.

"Hip plate," he said, and before she could flinch away from him, he clipped it onto the port by her left hip. It fit snuggly against her side, wrapping around to the small of her back, and down her left thigh. He reached to snap the other in place, but Aria took it from his hands.

"I can do this one," she said, bending to get a better look at the right hip port. She struggled to get the mechanism to snap for a minute, and finally she got it into place.

"And here, lemme just flip this." Hiro reached up, unclipping the chest plate from the back piece of her armor, flipping it, and then fitting it back around her chest. All the while Aria was still as a stone.

'He's totally touching me!' her brain screamed, not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 'Keep it together, keep it together, don't act or say something weird!' Once it was on correctly, she had to admit that it was more comfortable. It was pretty simple, extending from shoulder to shoulder, around her ribcage, coming to a stop a few inches above her belly button. It left her upper arms bare, or as bare as they could be, seeing as she was wearing that damn catsuit underneath. But her wrists and forearms were incased in similarly orange armor, and she wondered if these gauntlets were programmed like her channellers.

"Okay, great. Yeah, this looks good! Now all you need is the shoes and helmet, which are down in the garage. C'mon," he motioned for her to follow, and she did so reluctantly. Even if he said it looked good, she still felt ridiculous and silly. Damn Hiro. Damn him and his stupid, tight-fitting suit.

"Does my regulator fit into the helmet?" she asked.

"No, but don't worry. The helmet has one built in. Spent all night trying to fit it in there, but it's finally done!" Descending the stairs into the tiny workshop, Hiro snatched said helmet off of the desk, tossing it back and forth between hands for a moment, before tossing it to Aria, who only barely caught it. "Try it on! See how you like it!"

"Why's my armor so orange?" she asked, inspecting the device. It was, indeed, quite orange.

"Well, no particular reason. We all kinda have different colored armor; I'm purple, Baymax is red, Honey's pink, Gogo's yellow, Wasabi's green, Fred's blue. Orange was the only color we hadn't used yet." He sat back in his swivel chair, watching Aria inspect the inside of the helmet, before taking off her regulator and slipping it over her head. He had to admit, she did look pretty good in that outfit, and orange did suit her. Her short hair only just barely stuck out the underside.

"Ugg, my own voice is so loud in here," she said, making a face. "Do I really sound like this?"

"You're voice isn't anywhere near as grating as hearing Fred's through the microphone, believe me," Hiro laughed, pushing off from the desk and sliding over to the 3D printer. "Here, try the boots on. They've been programmed just like the gauntlets, so you should be able to channel the radiation through your legs and feet as well now."

"I don't really see the point of that," she mumbled, taking the boots, and slipping them on. They came to her knees, with a cap at the top to protect her kneecaps. There was no heel, thank God, they were just flat. "Why would I need to channel he magnetism through my feet?"

"Oh…I have a theory," Hiro said vaguely, and Aria instantly had a bad feeling. Hiro's ideas could be hit or miss, and she was worried.

"Hiro," she said, a warning in her voice, but he just grinned.

"No, no, trust me! Baymax is gonna help, this is a really good idea!"

"…Well, I guess as long as you're not gonna be chucking me off the side of a building, it can't be too bad of an idea, right?" She smiled warily, but Hiro didn't say anything. His eyes did dart to Baymax, though.

* * *

"I am not jumping off the roof of a building, Hiro!" Aria was as far away from the edge as possible, holding onto the chimney for dear life. Baymax was suited up, as was Hiro, the latter, holding his hand out to Ari. They were on the roof of the Lucky Cat Café, three stories up, and Aria was not budging. "You're crazy!"

"No, seriously, trust me, I won't let you fall!" Hiro said. "Last night with Ome got me thinking; if the ground, the Earth, has this crazy magnetic charge, you could be able to tap into it! All you need to do is, well…repel yourself. From the ground. Then you'd be levitating!"

"That's crazy!" she repeated, holding on tighter.

"Aria," He got closer. "Please. You've gatta trust me on this. If you can't do it, Baymax and I will catch you. I wouldn't let you get hurt. You know that, right?" His voice was softer now, and it did seem to lull Aria into a greater sense of security. But she was still reluctant.

"I'm…I'm not like Ome," she said, eyes flickering over the edge of the rooftop. "I can't do the stuff he did. I don't know how he did those things, but…I'm not that powerful!"

"Aria, you're only as powerful as you limit yourself to be," Hiro said, taking her hands in his, like he did before. "You CAN do this. I know you can."

"…Just…catch me when I fall, okay?"

"You won't need me to." He smiled as Aria slowly approached the edge. Climbing onto Baymax's back, the two were at the ready, in case Aria needed it.

'In, two three four. Hold, two three four. Out, two three four.' Repeating her breathing pattern from last night, Aria attempted to shut everything out. The noises from the street, the sunshine, her own heavily beating heart. She listened for the breeze, trying to calm herself. And, like last night, she attempted once again to sync up with that power she'd felt so deep in the Earth. It was there, on the edge of her consciousness, and perhaps that was enough. Clearing her mind of everything except for that feeling, she took a single step off the edge.

"Baymax!" Hiro gasped, as Aria immediately fell, disappearing over the edge and from their view. Baymax was quick, engaging thrusters immediately, but they hadn't needed to. As soon as they jumped to action, mid-dive of the dive of the roof, they saw her. She had fallen a few feet, but seemed to have halted herself. She was stumbling pretty hard, her hands thrown out in front of her, like she was steading herself on a table. "Aria…God, you scared me!"

"You don't think I didn't scare myself!?" she asked, eyes wide, staring at the alleyway below her. "I don't really know what I'm doing right now, but I sure hope to God I don't stop doing whatever it is!"

"This is great! You're doing great!" Hiro said, and Baymax hovered lower, so they were on the same level with Aria. "Okay, take my hand! I'll hold onto you, and you just walk, okay?"

"I don't think I can!" she squeaked, throat tight with fear.

"You can! Look at what you're already doing! I know you can!" He reached out himself, taking hold of one of her hands. She in turn squeezed hand for all she was worth, holding on as tightly as she could. She felt as if her stomach had dropped to her feet, and her heart was beating too quickly to count the beats. She was even too terrified to feel elated that Hiro was holding her hand. "Okay, good! Now just a step forward," he prompted, nodding in encouragement. Her eyes darted to his briefly, before returning to the ground. "Stop looking at the ground; just look at me, okay? I won't let you fall."

Aria dragged her eyes away from the ground, trying to keep them steady on Hiro's. His face was so encouraging, like the idea that she might fail had never even crossed his mind. It was slightly calming. Just slightly. Enough for her to feel confident enough to take a single step. Concentrating hard, she pushed off from her other foot, and took a second.

"Perfect! Look at you!" Hiro praised, elated that his idea was working.

"I'm doing it," she gasped, grinning. "Ha! I'm actually doing it!"

"I knew you could! Now, how about you try on your own?" He snatched his hand out of Aria's grasp while she wasn't paying attention, and again, she threw her hands out in front of her, now that she had no one to lean on. But she didn't need to; she was still upright.

"Hiro, come back!" she said, grabbing for him again, but he and Baymax were hovering several feet away now.

"You have to catch me if you wanna lean on me!" Hiro called.

"I'm gonna fall!"

"No! Aria, you won't!" He held his hand out to her, inviting her to come closer. She knew if she did start to fall, he wouldn't let her hit the ground, but the thought of losing her control over…whatever it was that she was controlling, terrified her.

"Stay there!" she called, shakily taking another step. And another. She was walking cautiously through the air, but as she got closer, she grew a little bolder, and her gait became a little more natural. But as soon as Hiro and Baymax were in reach, they retreated again. "Hey!"

"I said you'd have to catch me!" Hiro smirked. Aria's eyebrows furrowed, but she was feeling more confident with this now. She took steps quicker now, almost jogging, and each time Hiro and Baymax retreated, she sped up. Soon, he and Baymax were cruising at a decent speed, as Aria ran behind them. She did falter a few times, but each time she caught herself before she fell any more than a few feet. She also found herself naturally gaining and losing altitude to try and stay level with Hiro and Baymax. Eventually, they were too far away from the Lucky Cat Café to see it anymore.

"You're getting a little high," Aria called after them, as she chased them higher, as if climbing stairs.

"That's the point!" Hiro answered, instructing Baymax to slow down. Aria reached up, thinking he was going to take her hand and bring her back down to the ground, finally. But as soon as he took her hand in his, Baymax took off, up and over the rooftops of the surrounding buildings.

"What are you doing!?" she shrieked, glad that her helmet was keeping the wind from her eyes.

"Pushing you farther!" Hiro yelled back, as Aria was towed along with Baymax, as they left the city, and flew out over the bay. "This is it! Keep yourself balanced! You got this!"

"Hiro, what are you…don't! Don't let me g-" Before Aria could finish screaming, Hiro had released her hand, slingshotting her out over the water. She threw her hands out again, thinking she would need to cushion her head from the impact she would inevitably have with the water. But as her eyes remained squeezed shut, she was surprised that she hadn't yet hit anything.

"Open your eyes!" Hiro said over the microphone in her helmet. Slowly cracking them open, she looked down to see the water skimming below her, yet she wasn't getting closer to it. Opening them all the way and looking up, she realized she was skimming along the water like a dragonfly, and it nearly took her breath away. "Keep your hands down at 45 degree angles, that's what's keeping you up," Hiro instructed. "And you might wanna think about turning soon, there's a barge up ahead."

"I'm flying! I'm freaking flying!" she shrieked, delighted and frightened and mystified all at once.

"Seriously, think about turning!" Looking up finally to see the approaching boat, Aria's hands flinched to the left out of reflex, and immediately, she veered right. A little too right. "Whoa, whoa, keep steady! Don't take turns so hard!"

"This is my first time doing this, don't get all preachy on me!" she said back, taking another turn, softer this time. "I still have to get the hang of this!"

"Well, regardless of the turns, you're doing amazing, Aria!" Baymax descended from where they'd been keeping an eye on her from above, to fly level with Aria. Hiro grinned at her from the robot's back. "You never cease to amaze me, Aria! I didn't know if this would really work!"

"What!? You flung me out here when you didn't know if I would actually stay in the air!?"

"I would have caught you!" She reached out and tried to smack Hiro's helmet, but she started to destabilize without both hands held out and underneath her. "Careful!"

"Hmph." She turned away, a small smirk still on her lips. She started to take a small turn to the left, looking like she was going to collide with Hiro and Baymax. But at the last second, she rolled, speeding up with the momentum of the spin, and cutting the two of them off completely. Rocketing off in her new direction, Hiro could hear her laugh over the microphone. "Your turn to catch me!" she sang, and Hiro grinned.

"You're on!"

* * *

Aria couldn't keep the stupid grin off of her face. It felt so easy now. Her feet felt cemented to the metal shell of the wind turbine one moment, and as soon as she thought otherwise, she could lift it up, no problem. Strolling to the edge of the massive turbine, as if floated a thousand feet above the bay, she stooped, her hand making full contact with the surface of the metal. Grabbing hold magnetically with both hands, she swung herself over the edge, and planted her feet on the side. Straightening up, she began to walk, as if everything was completely normal, around the underside of the turbine. She came full loop, coming to a stop beside Hiro and Baymax on the other side.

"You're taking to this quicker than I expected," Hiro said, smiling up at her. She plopped down beside him, crossing her legs, and leaned back on her arms.

"I feel like Spiderman," she said, both exhilarated and relaxed at the same time.

"You kind of are."

"I've never had this much power before," she continued, looking out over the bay, as the sun sunk lower in the sky. "I've always been, you know. Small. Weak. Quiet. I'm not usually the type to do adventurous stuff, you know, or do big things like this. It's…fun. It's fun to do great big things, like, learn that you can fly. Ha!" She shook her head, and took her helmet off, letting her hair fly loose in the wind. "I couldn't have even imagined this a year ago!"

"Me neither." Hiro was smiling his crooked smile, the gap in his front teeth showing. "You're one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met."

"Well, I am one of the only two living magnets you've ever met," she pointed out mildly, heart already racing from the adrenaline.

"Not just that," Hiro replied, causing Aria's breath to catch in her throat. "You're an incredibly brave person, Aria. To seek me out, try all this experimental technology. To do this!" He motioned to her suit. "You're powers are great, yeah. But it's you, you know, that really makes it amazing. Not everyone can just run head-first into the unknown like this."

"I wouldn't really say I ran head first," she said, turning her head away, a blush sneaking up on her. "It was more like, dragged, kicking and screaming into the unknown."

"Hey, don't be modest." He shifted to lay his hand on top of hers, nearly causing Aria to have a heart attack, right then and there. "Don't sell yourself short. I think you're great." Aria's eyes were huge, and her mouth started to open. But her brain wasn't completely wired to her mouth in that moment, and before she had a chance to say something stupid and embarrass herself, she stood suddenly, shoving her helmet back on her head.

"Let's get more practice in!" she said quickly, and before Hiro could protest, she took a few steps, and pushed off of the turbine. He scrambled to the edge, to watch her take a graceful nosedive, before she dipped and rolled, straightening out, and launching through the air, over the bay.

"That girl," he said, a laugh on the edge of his voice. "C'mon, Baymax. Let's catch up."


	12. Chapter Twelve - Real Talk

"I probably could have described what to do over the phone," Honey Lemon said, helping Hiro carry in various pieces of the team's armor. "I mean, anti-rust? Pfft, that's first year chemistry!" Baymax followed behind Hiro, dutifully carrying an armful, and Wasabi was last, and he chuckled as he dumped what he was carrying onto the overly-frilly couch in the main room.

"Yeah, and what else is 'first year chemistry to you, Honey Lemon, deconstructing the atom bomb?" he quipped, to which she gave a little shove.

"But I'm always glad to have you over, Hiro!" she continued. "Do you want anything? Tea, cookies? I think I still have some of those little sandwiches you like." Hiro shook his head, sitting down beside the pile of multi-colored armor. No matter how many times he was over at Honey Lemon's house, it never ceased to amaze him just how pink the whole place was.

"I'm good, but thanks. I probably won't be very long, Baymax and I have a couple of diagnostics I wanna run before tomorrow.

"Okay, lemme just go get a few things from the study, and I'll be right back." She skipped off to retrieve the supplies she'd need to help Hiro fortify the team's armor. He didn't really know why he hadn't thought of it the first time around, even after the original batch started to rust out. He wouldn't be making that mistake again. Wasabi flopped down beside Hiro, letting out a sigh.

"Orange, huh?" Wasabi asked, holding up a piece of Aria's new armor. "So you finally convinced her?"

"Yeah, it wasn't all that easy. She was pretty reluctant at first, but, I think she's finally won over on the idea." He turned one of her gauntlets over in his hands, inspecting the inner wiring. "Wait'll you see her in it, she looks like she's always been part of the team!" One of Wasabi's eyebrows rose at that statement.

"And that's the only thing you have to say about the way Aria looks in her suit?" he asked, begging an innocent tone. The question threw Hiro off for a moment, but he wasn't quite sure what Wasabi meant. Either way, his tone was up to no good; he'd better change the subject quick, he figured.

"Usually Gran is bustling around this place when I come over," Hiro observed, suddenly realizing Honey Lemon's grandmother wasn't fussing over them like usual. "Is she out? I don't think I've ever seen her leave the house before."

"Nah, Gran's been under the weather lately," Wasabi said. "She's probably still resting upstairs.

"What? Why didn't Honey say anything?" Hiro was shocked, Gran felt like one of his own relatives, he'd spent so much time around her here at Honey's place. Why hadn't Honey Lemon told him Gran was sick?

"Well, we've been so busy with Aria and everything, Honey didn't want to say anything. She knew it would overcomplicate things." Wasabi rubbed the back of his neck, checking over the back of the couch briefly. He wanted to make sure Honey was still out of ear shot. "Honey's actually been pretty worried about her. Gran's just turned 90, for an old woman to be this sick…well, it isn't good."

"She should have told me, what, did she think I wouldn't care?" Hiro felt more than a little bad; was he spending too much time with his thoughts on Aria and her problems? He hadn't really had time to worry about anything else…

"No, it's not that. You know how Honey Lemon is. She hates to make a fuss." Wasabi shook his head. "Look, don't tell her I told you. She'll just get more flustered and upset. She's so optimistic, the last thing she needs is for everyone to be pitying and bringing her down right now."

"If you say so," Hiro said, nodding slightly, just as Honey Lemon returned, her arms full of various sized beakers and containers.

"Clear the coffee table, please!" she chirped, setting her armful down on the white polished surface. Hiro stood, to better watch what Honey Lemon was going to do, and as if on cue, Wasabi stretched, yawning loudly.

"Alright, Honey, I think I'd better go," he said, standing. "Thesis papers don't write themselves."

"Really?" she asked, straightening up and dusting off the front of her dress. In her usual platform heels, Honey stood a full two inches taller than Wasabi, but the latter didn't seem to care all that much. "You didn't even have any chai today."

"I'll videochat you later, okay? And you can always text me." He turned briefly to Hiro, and pointed to him. "Remember what I said, dude."

"Yeah, yeah," he replied, rolling his eyes. He was turned away from where Honey and Wasabi stood, but he could still feel that weird energy pulsing through the air. Hiro felt suddenly very strange being in the same room with these two, and although neither made a move to kiss the other, Hiro still felt as awkward as if they had. A wave of relief washed over him once Wasabi was gone. Why was it like this all of a sudden? He hung out with them all the time, and only just recently was it getting weird. He didn't know how to feel about it.

"What did Wasabi mean, 'remember what I said'?" she asked him once they were alone. She pulled two pairs of safety goggles from the little pink cross-body purse she wore, and handed one to Hiro.

"Oh, uh, nothing really," Hiro stuttered, though he realized he didn't sound too convincing. He fumbled to put the googles on, and only succeeded in snapping them painfully against his forehead.

"Oh, Hiro, you're so adorable when you're lying!" Honey laughed, giving him a knowing look.

"I am not 14 anymore, Honey."

"Oh, but you'll always be like my little brother!" She nearly knocked him over hugging him, and he couldn't help but smile. She was too endearing. "Now c'mon, tell your big sister what you were talking about!"

"Haha, ah, it was really nothing…" Hiro didn't know how else to avoid the topic. Maybe if he steered the conversation in a different direction?

"Was it about Aria?" No, no, wrong direction! His face immediately flared red, and the look of shock he wore made Honey Lemon giggle. "Ha! Oh, you and Wasabi are terrible at hiding things from me! It was, wasn't it?"

"N-no, what…why would we be talking about her!?" His voice pitched up an octave for a moment, cracking hilariously, which only embarrassed him further. Honey Lemon started to uncork several bottles in front of her, measuring out specific quantities.

"Hiro, I see how you look at her," she said matter-of-factly. "Everyone does. You're just a tad obvious."

"Obvious!? Haha, I have no idea what you're talking about…" Hiro never knew what to do with his arms, especially in awkward situations like this. He tried casually leaning on the arm of the couch, crossing his arms, shoving them in his pockets, it all felt awkward. God, this was not how he wanted this conversation to go!

"Hiro, you're totally smitten with her, just admit it!" she said, smiling, adding a few drops of hydrogen peroxide to the main beaker. "I mean, if anyone would understand, it would be me!"

"Smitten? Whoa whoa, Honey Lemon, who's smitten? Not me, I'm-" He started to laugh, but Honey was sitting up straight, looking right at him, with an eyebrow cocked. He knew she wasn't buying it. Crap. "I'm…well…she's...I, uh, I guess, I sort of…" He felt way to uncomfortable talking to Honey Lemon about this, but unfortunately for him, Baymax was there to ruin his attempts of keeping any secrets.

"Hiro's neurotransmitter levels become elevated when Aria is around, or when she is brought up in conversation," the robot interjected, much to Hiro's chagrin. "Cortisol levels increase, as do dopamine levels, indicating strong hormonal and chemical attachment."

"Okay, that's enough!" Hiro said, laughing nervously. "Baymax, don't you have, uh…updates to install? We should get going-"

"Conversation between the two indicates withheld information and romantic frustration-"

"Baymax!"

"What!? That means she feels the same way!" Honey Lemon gasped, abandoning the project and hand and standing. "Oh, Hiro, you have to tell her!" She spun him around and held him by the shoulders, shaking him. Damn, there was nothing better to make a 6' guy feel short than to be shaken by a girl in platform heels. "This could be the turning point of your first relationship! The one you look back on fondly when you're old and reminiscing about when you first fell in love!"

"Seriously, I'm not in love-" he started to say, backing up to escape Honey's grasp, when he tripped over the TV remote, falling and landing on his butt. The TV across from the sprung to life, tuned to Gran's favorite channel, the local conservatively biased news report. Both eyes snapped to the screen when a familiar topic was brought up.

"Could liberally prone violent protesters be behind the disappearance of Dr. Hattingfeild, Jim?" the pretty blonde on the screen asked her cohost, who nodded gravely.

"That's my humble opinion, Diane," he replied, stacking the papers in front of him neatly. "Who else would be so against the recent human trial scandal? Only liberals would want to derail the march of progress, for the sake of 'human rights'!" A picture was flashed on screen, a small, hunched over man wearing orange, as if in prison clothes. Honey squinted at the TV, wondering where she had seen that face before. It came to Hiro almost immediately.

"That's one of the doctors indicted in the human neurological trials scandal!" he gasped, scrambling to his feet. "He was shown, being led from the hospital in the news report the other day at the lab, remember?" Honey nodded slowly, realization dawning on her.

"So, he was snatched right from the country criminal holding?" Jim asked Diane on screen, who nodded solemnly. Hiro's eyebrows shot up his forehead, and the familiar knot formed in his stomach.

"What does this mean, Hiro?" Honey Lemon asked, as he run both hands through his hair.

"This can't wait any longer," he muttered, more to himself than to her. "We've got to catch Ome, before he hurts that scientist, or anyone else."


	13. Chapter Thirteen - Failed Endeavor

Aria felt very strange. The others were practically professionals at this, and here she was, the one odd duck out. She wasn't really sure what she should be doing right now. Honey was making some last minute calibrations on her purse, Wasabi was tightening up the blades on his suit. Fred was…well, Fred was doing whatever it was he usually did. Aria didn't attempt to understand his antics. Hiro was trying to stuff Baymax into his suit, swearing under his breath with the effort. And Gogo was paced back and forth across the garage, tossing Aria hostile glances now and then. She knew Gogo partially blamed Aria for this, but she had no idea what to say to that. She just had to weather the angry glares.

"Aria, make sure Gogo's disks are calibrated correctly," Hiro instructed without looking up. Swallowing hard, Aria wasn't sure Gogo would let her even look at her disks, let alone touch them or recalibrate them.

"They're fine," Gogo retorted, turning away to continue pacing. "I know how to do things on my own, believe it or not."

"You know that's not what I meant," Hiro started, but seemed to think better of it, and shut himself up. It wasn't worth it right now.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Fred remarked from inside his suit, his voice muffled. Aria turned her wide eyes to him, shrugging, as if to say 'And what can I do about that?' "Hey, relax, you're the only one of us with actual super powers. If anyone's gonna make it out of a fight alive, it'd be you."

"Freddie," Honey said. "I don't think your pep talk is very encouraging."

"C'mon, before we all get any more anxious," Hiro said, finally squeezing Baymax into his chest-plate and slipping on his helmet.

"Hold up. How are we gonna find this guy?" Wasabi interjected, sheathing his plasma blades. "He's a pissed off, unstable magnet who's capable of kidnapping people from an armed prison cell. This doesn't sound like the kinda guy you can track down and sneak up on."

"Baymax was able to scan him, the night he dropped in," Hiro said. "We'll find him just like we found Callaghan. Put your helmet on," he added, as he walked up to Aria. Before she could comply, though, he took it from her hands, and placed it gingerly over her head. "Nervous?"

"Yeah," she admitted, and it felt like the butterflies in her stomach were trying to escape through her throat.

"Don't be. We have your back." He patted the top of her helmet, and then turned to the others. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be!" Fred shouted, bounding past Hiro and jumping up and out of the alleyway. Aria was sure he'd meant that to sound encouraging, but it only made her feel more nervous. Honey followed close after, using some one of the specially designed chemical concoction to bounce her way up to the nearest rooftop.

"Nobody uses the stairs anymore?" Wasabi grumbled, grabbing hold of one of Baymax's shoulders, foot planted steadily in the robot's palm. Gogo hoisted herself up onto Baymax's back alongside Hiro.

"Need a boost?" Hiro asked, but Aria shook her head. She could do this. Something inside her needed to prove to herself that she could overcome her nerves and not be a burden. The last thing she wanted to be was a burden. As Baymax took off to follow Honey up to the rooftops, Aria closed her eyes, coming to a halt in the middle of the driveway. With her palms facing the ground, she closed her eyes, and concentrated hard. It was a little difficult, working through her anxiousness and foreboding about the upcoming altercation, but once she silenced the chatter in her brain, it became easier to utilize the radiation she could feel coursing evenly through her body. After that, it was a simple matter of exerting more pressure downwards, and repelling herself upwards. She was a little too focused actually, and she ended up throwing herself upwards too hard.

"Graceful," Fred remarked, as Aria landed in a pile of limbs on the rooftop.

"Freddie!" Honey chided. Hiro wasn't paying attention, though; as Aria straightened up, she was startled to see a map spring up on the display in her helmet. She guessed it must've been what Baymax was seeing, as the map was covered in little green man symbols as he swept the cityscape.

"Match detected," Baymax chirped, as one of the symbols popped up red. There he was. That was Ome.

"He's on the North End," Hiro said, nodding, as the display disappeared. "Alright, let's do this."

"See ya on the other side," Gogo remarked, hopping from Baymax's back. She was off like a rocket as soon as her blades hit the rooftop, leaping from building to building like a flea. Honey took her place on Baymax's back, as he promptly lifted off again. Without hesitating another moment, Aria pushed herself up, and took off running. As soon as she came to the edge of the rooftop, she let herself dive, building momentum, before rolling and straightening out at street level. She dodged cars for a bit, before gaining altitude, until she was level with Baymax.

"I thought we might have to go back for you," Hiro remarked, to which Aria rolled her eyes.

"Me? Never," she said, gaining a bit of confidence. Pushing herself forward, she outpaced Baymax.

It turned out that the North End was not a whole lot more than construction sites. There were a few sparse condominium buildings, but as of yet, the North End looked wholey unfinished. 'A good place to hide,' Aria thought, weaving through several stories of steel beams, only to come to a stop at the top, setting her feet down on the top bar. Baymax stopped not far off.

"Figures he'd pick a place with a ton of metal," Hiro said through the microphones, looking around. Baymax was scanning similarly, his arm raising slowly to point.

"My scanners indicate the patient is 250 feet North-northeast, basement level," he said. Following his line of site, Aria spied a half-finished apartment building.

"Let's get to it," Gogo said, sliding down the side of the unfinished building they stood atop. Aria had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling. But Hiro nodded encouragingly, and she figured, what was the worst that could happen? They'd get chased off?

Ome didn't wait until the team was on him, though. He appeared on one of the still-exposed mid-levels before Gogo could get to him.

"Stay back!" Aria called over the microphone. "Don't charge him, Gogo, it won't work!"

"I don't tell you how to fight!" she snarked back, but just as Aria leapt from her perch, speeding closer, Gogo was dragged off course with a simple sweep of Ome's arm. She nearly collided with the side of a building on this new, forced trajectory.

"Ome!" Aria called out, getting closer. "We aren't here to fight!"

"Wait, we aren't?" she heard Wasabi ask through the headset. She came to a stop several yards away from Ome, setting her feet down in midair as if she was standing on solid ground, level with Ome on the fifth floor.

"Aria's right," Hiro said, as Baymax came to hover close by. "This doesn't have to be a huge battle. We aren't enemies-"

"If you aren't with me," Ome spoke, shouting over the wind, "then you're against me. And I can't have anyone against me; that's why I had to take these two into custody." Motioning behind him with a grandiose gesture, two figures came into view, held up by what appeared to be sentient steel cables. Neither figure was conscious. "These two were most certainly against me. But…not for long."

"He must've kidnapped the other scientist that headed the trials," Honey gasped, and Aria's fists clenched. She could understand blaming the scientists, she could understand being angry at them. But this wasn't the way! They were just people; people who'd made mistakes, but people none the less.

"But I'm a generous man," Ome continued, holding the team in terse silence. "I'll give you a choice. You can stay and oppose me all you want, but I promise you, I will put you down if you do. Or you can turn around and forget you ever heard of a man named Rino Ome."

"As if!" Fred sneered.

"And for Aria, my potential little prodigy," he said, narrowing his eyes. "I give you the option of joining me. I see you haven't abandoned those toys yet, which is a shame, really. I can feel so much power surging through you! If only you'd give me a chance to help you unlock it…" The way he said it made Aria's skin crawl, and she sneered.

"Let them go, now," Hiro commanded, "Or so help me, I'll wring the radiation out of your bones!"

"I'd like to see you try!" With that, and a flick of Ome's wrist, Gogo was dragged by her feet from where she'd fallen after colliding with the building, into the air, and tossed like a ragdoll. She hit Aria hard in the side, sending both girls crashing to the Earth from 5 stories up. Baymax would have leapt to the rescue, had he not been dragged by his armor towards Ome.

"Don't let go!" Aria shrieked, taking hold of Gogo's arm, trying to orient herself right-side-up. It was difficult with the second person's worth of added weight, but Aria was only just able to keep them from smashing to the ground at full force. Their landing was still rather hard, though.

"Are you guys okay!?" Honey called through the headset, and Aria groaned.

"We're fine," Gogo growled, getting up immediately, and taking off towards where Ome had ripped Hiro from Baymax's back, all without laying a single hand on him. Scrambling to her feet, Aria took off, stepping up higher into the air with each stride, reaching for Hiro.

"Gotcha!" she gasped, colliding with him and holding on tight, halting his downward momentum. They hung in the air for a moment, before the combined weight started to drag Aria down.

"Let me go!" Hiro commanded, "I'll make the landing! Go get the hostages!"

"Right!" She let him go, and watched as he hit hard, but rolled with the impact. They weren't too high up, just about a story, and as soon as she saw that he was already, she took off towards where Ome was lazily flicking his hand back and forth, halting any forward progress by the team.

"Given any more thought to my proposition?" Ome asked, amusement in his voice, as she approached. He was actually having fun! She worked hard to suppress a snarl, and when he flicked his hand towards her, she dug deep and kept her focus. She could feel the magnetic force that kept her aloft shift around her, like a wave through the water, but she didn't do more than falter, and used the pause he took to look shocked to collide with him, sending him flying.

"I'd rather die than go with you," she spat, relishing the shocked look he wore. She turned to the scientists, still suspended by steel cable serpents, and attempted to tear the metal away from them. But Ome was trying his hardest to keep her from freeing his hostages, all while still easily keeping the others at bay.

"Ah ah ah," he chided, getting close and taking a swing at Aria. "Not before the main event, you don't!"

"Let 'em go!" she shrieked, jumping just out of his reach. And to her surprise, he did release one of the men, the older one, whom she recognized as the lead scientist on the human trials panel. She'd met him several times in the past. But as he levitated the man above his head, a dark grin spread across his features, and Aria's stomach dropped.

"You're about to see what true power can do, Aria, my dear!" he shouted, before lifting, and slamming his foot back on the concrete floor of the unfinished level. Another shockwave hit Aria, one she was not prepared for, and she was thrown backwards, nearly over the edge of the building. Stepping up, as if climbing a spiral staircase, Ome climbed to the level he held the man at, suspended in midair, and grasped either side of the scientist's head. "It's only fair that, since he gave me such a 'gift', I return the favor, no?" he asked, wearing that psychotic grin of his. Aria was on her feet once more, but almost as soon as she was, the third and most powerful shockwave yet slammed into her, and the others, knocking Baymax and Hiro out of the sky, and knocking Aria completely over the edge.

"Hiro!" she heard Wasabi screech on the headset, but she couldn't turn to see what had happened, she was hanging off the side of the building by the gutter, trying to regain her focus and catch herself. She could hear Ome cackling somewhere above her, and the pulses of radiation she felt were getting stronger and more erratic. She didn't know what he was doing to that scientist, but if he didn't stop soon, he'd-

"OME!" She was too late. She'd only just scrabbled up the side of the ledge and pulled herself up in time to see the lead scientist fall lifelessly to the concrete below. He hit with a sickening thud. "NO!" There was little hope for the man's survival, but she ran to him anyway, ignoring the shocked look Ome wore. "What did you do!?" she shrieked, sliding to her knees, taking the dead man's head in her hands, cradling it.

"…I hadn't anticipated expiration," Ome said quietly, which only enraged Aria further.

"Bastard!" Launching upwards, she grabbed him around the waist, dragging him down as she fell. The two of them twisted in midair, Aria trying to hold his head down, ready for the impact. He deserved to die, for what he did! He'd taken this mistake and done everything wrong, he'd become a monster! But she wasn't strong enough, his hands closed around her neck, and he threw her away, both of them hitting the ground hard, though not fatally so.

"It wasn't what I anticipated," he groaned, getting to his feet quickly, backing away. "But it's what he deserved! For what he did! He did this to himself!" His eyes, overly wide, zeroed in on Aria. "And you're just as bad! Filthy traitor!"

"Aria, get out of there!" Hiro shouted, but it was too late. She was dragged upwards by her armor, and no amount of struggling or focus was helping her; the power surging off of Ome was too great. Whatever he was doing, it was rendering Aria useless.

"Let me go!" she gasped, as she was dragged higher. The grin returned to Ome's face.

"Gladly." There was no time to react. It was immediate and devastating; she was launched backwards, the force knocking the wind out of her. She wasn't sure what she was going to collide with, but she had no power to stop herself. She at least hoped her helmet would keep her head skull from cracking against whatever she hit.

She didn't end up hitting anything, though. In her disorientation, Hiro and Baymax had sped to try and catch her as she was on her direct collision course with the steel beams of a nearby construction project. Shielded from the brunt of the impact with Baymax between her and the steel, Aria only suffered mild whiplash. What she didn't realize was that Hiro was the one that got caught between the robot and the steel skeleton.

Ome had begun to retreat, dragging Dr. Hattingsfeild along with him to God only knew where. But Big Hero 6 was powerless to stop him; bruised and battered, it was all they could do to collapse in exhaustion, watching through sour expressions as Ome escaped.

"Hiro, Aria!" Honey gasped, as the three of them, boy, girl, and robot, tumbled to the ground. Aria pushed herself up on her elbows, dazed and sore, as Honey Lemon stooped beside them. "Oh my God, Hiro! Hiro, say something!"

"What-?" Twisting, Aria saw Hiro slump from Baymax's back, apparently limp with unconsciousness.

"He's out cold," Gogo said, shoving her way through, propping him up in her arms. "We gatta get him outta here, now!" The display on his helmet was cracked severely, one of the antennae on the side snapped clean off. As Baymax righted himself, he picked the limp boy up in his arms solemnly.

"He needs immediate medical attention," he announced, looking around. "We must get him to the nearest hospital." Aria watched helplessly as he was hoisted up. This was her fault. This was all her fault. She hadn't been able to keep focus and stop Ome. She'd let him get away. She was the reason Hiro was hurt so badly. And all she wanted to do right now was curl up and cry, but her insides were far too numb.

They had failed. And not only was Hiro injured, but now, someone was dead.


	14. Chapter Fourteen - Guilt Trip

It was eerie. Even Fred didn't have anything to say. The silence was broken only by Cass and Baymax, the former occasionally requesting status updates from the latter. One of the best things about having Baymax around was that Hiro didn't require a several-night stay in the hospital. But having Hiro recover in his own bed brought other problems as well. Mainly, having to sit there and watch him wince in his sleep every time he had to breathe, which is all the time.

It was just three ribs. It the grand scheme of things, it could have been so much worse. He could have broken something worse, pierced a lung, broken the back of his head. Three ribs was nothing compared to that, but still. The only reason he'd broken those ribs was because of Aria. And she just wouldn't let herself forget it.

And the worst part? Everyone else had had the sense to leave Hiro be and go home. Except for Gogo.

Aria was sitting in Hiro's desk chair, her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on her knees as she stared at Hiro in his sleep. She could feel Gogo staring at the back of her head, it felt like a hole was being burned through her skull. She knew Gogo must've blamed her just as hard as she blamed herself, and the tense silence was killing her. She wished Gogo would just chew her out and get it over with!

"You can go ahead and say it, you know," Aria said quietly, without looking up. "We're both thinking it, I know you wanna go ahead and say it. Just do it. You can't make me feel any scummier than I already do." There was a long pause, before she heard Gogo sigh.

"Alright. You need to calm down. This isn't your fault."

"I know! I know, and I'm….wait, what?" She spun to face Gogo, shock written clearly across her features. "I…expected you to bitch me out…"

"What, do you want me to bitch you out? Cuz I could, there's plenty of other things I don't particularly like about you." She was leaning against the desk, scowling slightly. But it wasn't her usual scowl. It was softer; Aria could tell how worried she was about Hiro. "But this isn't one of them. Look I know you feel guilty; just look at your face? You look like a goddamn puppy dog." She motioned to Aria, who cocked an eyebrow. What was that supposed to mean? "But you need to woman up and stop moping. Hiro did this to himself."

"But if I hadn't-"

"Look, if you hadn't shown up in the first place, Hiro still would have weaseled his way into fighting Ome. That's just the sort of person he is. He's hell bent on sticking his nose where he shouldn't. And besides," she crossed her arms, shaking her head slightly, "there was no way in hell he wasn't gonna try and catch you. He's so obvious." She smiled slightly, looking down. "He's just like his brother." Aria opened her mouth to say some snappy retort in response, but she had nothing. What did Gogo mean, 'he's so obvious?' The butterflies in her stomach seemed to wake up at that comment.

"Tadashi?" Aria ended up asking. Gogo nodded.

"Always trying to protect people. I couldn't tell you how many times Tadashi would come to class dead tired because he was out all night, trying to keep Hiro out of trouble in the bot fighting circuit. Or how worried he'd get when I'd use the industrial whetstone. I'd used it a hundred times, and still, every time I'd turn it on, he's watch me out of the corner of his eye, all worried. Dumbass." Even though she was insulting Tadashi, Gogo was still smiling. It was slowly dawning on Aria that perhaps there had been something going on between the two before…well, before everything that happened.

"I bet you never put Tadashi in the hospital before," Aria said, looking back to Hiro. His chest was rising and falling shakily, and he was wheezing slightly with each breath. It killed her inside to see him like this.

"I did punch his nose in once, when we were both freshman," she said. "You wouldn't have known, but his nose had this little hump in the bridge; that was me." She then made a sound Aria had never heard from her before; she laughed. It perplexed her almost as much as the fact that Gogo was not currently yelling at her, but instead talking to her like a normal human being. This seemed too surreal.

"You're not usually this nice to me," she pointed out hesitantly, glancing at Gogo sideways. "This is the perfect opportunity for you to yell at me, and you're not? …Did you get hit in the head really hard or something?" Rolling her eyes, Gogo straightened up, and walked over to Hiro, sitting on the bed beside him.

"Hiro's like this annoying little brother I can't help but care about," she said, setting her helmet beside her on the bed, and putting her hand over Hiro's on top of the covers. "He's stupid, and gets himself into these crazy situations, and I feel like I always have to come to his rescue. But…he's been so happy lately. Lively. Well, not now," she motioned to him, lying there, "but you know what I mean. And as much as I hate to say it, because you have been causing trouble…it's because of you."

"Me?" Aria squeaked, looking surprised.

"Duh." Standing, Gogo stretched, and grabbed her helmet. Just when Aria was getting comfortable with her presence, and just when she had more questions for Gogo, she was leaving. "If you can't see it, then I'm not gonna be the one to tell you why. Jeez, both of you are clueless as hell." She made her way to the stairs, saluting lazily as she went. "I'll see you tomorrow; I'm sure Honey and Wasabi will be here first thing."

"Wait, I-" but Gogo was gone. Aria stood up quickly, wondering if she should follow; she still had questions. What did she mean? Aria had been nothing but trouble, caused nothing but bad things, how was she making Hiro happy!? She was too confused, and she remained cemented to the spot. She didn't know what to do. Glancing at Hiro's sleeping form, she collapsed at the foot of his bed, her head in her hands.

"I don't know what to do," she said to herself quietly, and all was silent for a long while. In fact, it wasn't until Hiro shifted in his sleep some time later did Aria uncurl herself from the foot of the bed, looking up. "Hiro?" she asked hopefully, thinking he might have woken up. But he was still fast asleep. His face looked troubled, though. 'Probably from the pain,' she thought miserably. But before she could descend into another bout of self-loathing, Hiro spoke.

"Don't," he mumbled in his sleep. Aria's ear's perked up, and she circled the bed, to stand closer. "Don't hurt…her," he continued, shifting again. Her mouth hung open, unable to process what he was saying in his dream-riddled slumber, until he finally settled back down, drifting deeper into sleep, with one final word; "Aria…"

'Is he dreaming about me!?' she thought, covering her mouth with one hand. 'Why!? …Is he dreaming about the battle?' Of course, these questions would go unanswered, but she stood still for many moments, just staring. It wasn't until she realized how dead tired and sore she was, did she finally relent, and turned her eyes away. She was going to relegate herself to sleeping at the desk, but the thought of Hiro dreaming about her was still bumping around in her head. She couldn't clear her mind. And maybe that was why she wasn't thinking too straight, because she certainly wasn't in her right mind as she curled up beside Hiro on the bed, careful not to jostle him. Her arms only barely curled around his, hugging his right arm close. Like this, it was incredibly easy to fall asleep.

Too bad her dreams were filled with play-by-play reruns of what had transpired that day.


	15. Chapter Fifteen - Solo

As Hiro opened his eyes, there was a single glorious moment where he was able to pretend that everything was okay. That Aria was downstairs sleeping on the couch, that Ome wasn't wreaking havoc, that Baymax was waiting patiently downstairs for the newest upgrade, and where his chest didn't feel like a 1000 pound weight had been dropped on it.

But that moment was over quickly. Realization of what had happened came crashing in around him almost as soon as the pain blossomed from his chest, knocking him back against his pillow. He'd been knocked unconscious, he remembered. Several fleeting visions of being carried through a hospital flashed in his memory; he must have had been drifting in and out of consciousness. And now, here he was, waking up the next morning, feeling as if Death itself had round-house kicked him in the face.

"Ugg, it hurts to breathe," he groaned, reluctant to sit back up. "Why does it hurt to breathe?"

"Three of your ribs have been broken." As if on cue, Baymax came shuffling up the stairs.

"Ribs? Ugg, what happened?" He was able to finally sit up, leaning forward heavily, and glanced at the robot. "Did Ome do this?"

"No. I am sorry to say that it was I who injured you. I violated my health care protocol."

"What?...How'd you do that?" He really couldn't remember much of the battle yesterday; the last thing that was truly clear in his mind was seeing Aria sail through the air, unable to stop herself as she was on a direct collision course with several steel beams…

"You directed me to catch Aria before she collided with an adjacent building," Baymax said, walking over and setting down a plate of food, no doubt straight from Aunt Cass. Baymax did make a good delivery boy. "I voiced concern, but you insisted. Once I caught her, the force of the impact drove all three of us into a steel beam, with you caught between." Hiro held his hand to his chest, trying to compartmentalize the uncomfortable tightness he felt.

"…Right…I think I remember," he said, wracking his brain. "You told me that I would likely by pinned if we tried to catch her, didn't you?"

"Yes, that is correct." Hiro nodded slightly. He did remember. He also remembered the panic of seeing Aria fall like that. She was so small; it was like watching a ragdoll get thrown off that roof. She would have been mangled if they hadn't caught her. Looking around, he half expected to see her asleep at the desk or something, but she wasn't in the loft at all.

"Where's Aria?" he asked, startled to see Baymax shrug.

"She is not in the house," the robot said, in that unaffected tone of his.

"What do you mean, not in the house?" Hiro's heart began to beat faster, pumping painfully against his damaged rib cage. "Like, she left? Where did she go? Baymax, where is she?"

"She did not say. I believe she did not know I saw her leave. At 5 am this morning, she came down to the lab, retrieved her helmet and armor, and left through the alleyway. She did not leave a note." Baymax was just a robot, he could not worry like Hiro could. But seeing Hiro's negative reaction to this news, and from the scans he was taking of his brain activity, he knew this was distressing to his patient and friend. "Is this problematic?"

"Yes! Of course it is! Did she just run away? What, because we lost!?" He tried to swing his legs over the edge of the bed to stand, but doubled over, his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

"Please do not try to stand. You need rest and time to heal," Baymax urged, gently pressing on his shoulder to get him to lay back down. Hiro tried to brush him off.

"I have to find her!" Hiro said, but again, was held back by Baymax. "Baymax, let me go!"

"You are in no condition to leave," Baymax said. "I will retrieve Aria for you."

"Are you gonna scan the city for her?" Hiro asked, and Baymax nodded slowly. "Okay…okay, find her, and bring her back here." He sat down, like Baymax wanted, and put his head in his hands. Why would she have run away? Did she blame herself? Maybe Gogo said something to her while he was unconscious? He'd have to text the team and see if they knew anything.

"Do not worry," Baymax said, patting Hiro's head. "I will find her."

"Please do."

* * *

It was dark out. That's all Aria knew. There was large bags under her eyes, and as she sat up in Hiro's bed, she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. What little sleep she'd had had been plagued by nightmares of what had happened that day, and each time she woke up in a cold sweat.

'I have to clear my head,' she thought desperately, staring at Hiro in his sleep. He was sleeping better now, it seemed, and for that she was grateful. His face looked so flawless when he was sleeping soundly. She wanted to reach out and touch his cheek, but she was afraid of disturbing his calm slumber. He deserved a bit of time where he wasn't in pain. He deserved more than that, really, but right now, that was all Aria could give him.

Standing, she made her way downstairs, to the garage. It was probably super early, she thought, but maybe that was a good thing. 'I just need to meditate again, the absolute quiet,' she told herself, 'Like the other night. Really focus and concentrate. That'll clear my head.' Opening the garage door, she stepped out into the driveway, and sat down on the cold concrete. Crossing her legs and setting her hands on her knees, she closed her eyes, and slowed her breathing. In, two three four. Hold, two three four. Out, two three four. Over and over, until the rhythm seemed natural.

She soaked in the silence. There was no breeze so early in the pre-dawn morning, no birds. Everything was still. Quiet. Letting her consciousness extend past her body, she began to feel the familiar rumblings and churnings of the Earth, deep below the ground. It was relaxing, keeping track of the subtle shifts of the tectonic plates. Even something so huge, so volatile, could seem calming and gentle. It was hard to believe the plates that sung such low, sweet melodies below the surface of the world were the same forces that created Earthquakes and tsunamis.

As she sat, attuned to the inner mechanisms of the Earth, she began to feel somewhat of a disturbance on the edge of her consciousness. What was that, ruining her glorious peacefulness? It was annoying, like a mosquito. It felt like tiny prickling, and she decided to try and explore what it was. Focusing on that one tiny magnetic inconsistence, she felt it coming further into focus. It almost felt like…waves? Little waves. Small in the grand scheme of the world but not like the regular footsteps of someone walking normally. What was this sensation?

It hit her like a train, where she'd felt waves like this before. It had to be Ome. No one else on Earth could disturb the magnetic spectrum, not like she or Ome could. She couldn't tell what he was doing, or even exactly where he was, but as she opened her eyes, she could tell in what direction she would find him.

'Hiro's hurt because of me,' she thought dismally, 'but I can make up for it. I can make up for the life I wasn't able to save yesterday. I can't let anyone else get hurt.' She swallowed hard, before turning on her heel towards the garage. Snatching up her armor and helmet, she changed quickly, and then returned to the driveway, looking up at the dark sky. 'No one else can fight this battle. It's just me, and Ome. This is how it's going to end.' And with that, she took off in the direction of the magnetic disturbance.

The closer Aria got to Ome, the stronger she could feel his power reverberating through the Earth. It was like riding out shock waves. To the average person, it would have been undetectable, but to Aria, it made her legs feel like mush. And before long, she began to realize where this game of hot and cold was leading her.

It wasn't hard to get to the top of the bridge. But it sure wasn't any place Aria wanted to be. The huge support towers of the Golden Gate Bridge were hundreds upon hundreds of feet up, and while she had been higher before, and she knew if she fell, she could save herself, it still made her feel uneasy to be up so high. Not to mention she was deep within a thick cloud of fog, so she couldn't see two feet in front of her. She didn't have to see, though, to know Ome was on one of the other support towers. She could feel him, loud and clear.

"Well, well, well," she heard him say, making the skin on the back of her neck crawl. "Aria, what a surprise! I hadn't been expecting you back so soon. I would have thought you'd be away with those other children, licking your wounds." She whipped her head around, trying to locate the precise source of the voice, but it didn't work. It sounded like he was speaking from all around her. "Unless…you've come to your senses?"

It made her gasp, when he finally revealed himself. He was so close. Stepping out of the fog, seemingly and probably from thin air, he was on the support beam right beside her, smiling that wicked, crazy smile of his. "Are you finally here to join me?"

"I'm here to talk sense into you," Aria said, backing up as far as she could go, without stepping out into the air. "Ome, I know what you're going through. The others, they don't. But I do. I know how desperate you feel. How isolated. Alone. I understand you." His face was impassive as she spoke, and she wondered if he was even listening. "But this…this isn't the way. You're not going to help anything or anyone by kidnapping and…and hurting people."

"Ah!" he finally spoke, grinning once more. "I'm so glad you brought that up; I actually have our little friend with me!" He flicked his wrist into the fog, in some vague direction, and almost immediately, Aria heard someone groan, before Ome floated Dr. Hattingsfeild into view. He dropped the poor man on the beam he stood on, at his feet. "What a weak little man, this one. Barely has the strength to stand up anymore." He nudged him slightly with his shoe, and Aria felt a fire ignited in her belly.

"Let him go, Ome," she said, keeping the fire from her voice. "He doesn't deserve this torture! He's just a man, for God's sakes! He made a mistake! You need to get past it!"

"Oh, sweet, innocent Aria," Ome cooed, lifting the man once more, putting his hands on either side of his head. "You think people like him ever learn? No. He'll keep on making mistakes. Keep on ruining innocent lives. He must pay. But, don't worry dear. I'm not going to kill him, oh no." He flicked his wrist again, and this time, Aria was once again lifted off her feet, held struggling in the air by Ome. "I've perfected my art; would you like to see?"

"Don't hurt him!" she gasped, but Ome was in no mood to listen. Pressing against the sides of Dr. Hattingsfeild's head, the poor man immediately tensed, wracked with a pain Aria couldn't imagine. His teeth were pressed tightly together as he grimaced painfully, and Ome just chuckled. Finally he let Hattingsfeild go, and the doctor slumped to Ome's feet, too weak to do anything else. Aria wondered how many times he'd been subjected to this. "You monster!" she snarled, enraged at the innocent man's treatment, and at being suspended, helpless like this. "Let me go and fight like a man, you coward!"

"Let you go? You keep insisting that I let you go. Well, alright, if that's what you want." He smirked as his hand twitched, and once again, Aria was sent flying. She was prepared this time, and almost immediately righted herself, using the momentum to crash into Ome, pushing him off the support beam, and sending them both into a freefall. Then, planting her feet into his stomach, she used him like a springboard, launching him faster towards the ground. Catching herself, she climbed back to the top of the beam, where Hattingsfeild lay. He looked like a little broken doll.

"I've got you," she said, quickly trying to scoop him into her arms. She was very small, and Hattingsfeild was a grown man. But maybe it was just the adrenaline, because she managed to pick him up, albeit shakily. She intended to carry him to the ground, but what she hadn't anticipated was for Ome to return so quickly; he hadn't even hit the ground before righting himself, launching back up to where Aria stood, holding the doctor.

"Little bitch!" Ome snarled, colliding with the girl. Losing her footing at the edge, Dr. Hattingsfeild slipped from her arms, and was tossed over the side. He was not magnetic, like the two squabbling at the top of the bridge, and began to plummet fast. Planting her foot in Ome's face as he tried to grab for her neck, she kicked hard, and let herself tumble over the edge after Hattingsfeild. She caught up to him easily, but it was halting his momentum that was the hard part. Not to mention the cars below; the sun was just starting to rise, and San Fransokyo was just starting to wake up and go to work. If the fall didn't kill them, a car hitting them would.

"You're too heavy!" Aria groaned, holding the now-unconscious Hattingsfeild around the waist, pushing her feet downwards, resisting the ground with all her might. It took her full concentration to stop their downward force, and even then, they hit the ground and tumbled. The screech of a car could be heard, and she looked up just in time to see a driver come to a screaming stop.

"Perfect!" she breathed, scrabbling up. She didn't stop to try and see where Ome was; the fog prevented that anyway. She grabbed Hattingsfeild and dragged him up to the now-stopped car.

"What the f-" the driver began to swear as he opened the door to see a small girl in orange armor dragging an unconscious man by the arm. "What the hell!?"

"Take him to the nearest hospital, now!" Aria huffed, shoving Hattingsfeild into the driver's arms. He started to protest, but Aria shook her head, shoving them both inside the car. "NOW! Don't stop for anything or anyone. GO!" Slamming the door, Aria looked up to see Ome descending on them. She knew he was going to try and throw the car, and she had to stop him. Summoning up every ounce of focus and strength, she climbed on top of the car, fists clenched hard.

As expected, Ome landed on the road, hard, halting several other cars behind him, and with a flick of his hand, the car underneath Aria's feet nudged forward. This seemed to startle the driver enough to take Aria seriously, and he quickly took off, Aria still on the roof. Her hands were held out in front of her, shielding the vehicle from Ome's magnetic manipulations, but only barely. Realizing what she was doing, Ome took off after them, but was again thwarted when Aria leapt off the car, landing a bit shakily, and pushed him back once more.

Again and again he tried to follow, and again and again Aria halted him. He finally let out one last frustrated scream as Aria managed to lift him from the ground, pinning him to the nearest steel cable. By then, the car was long gone, and off the bridge.

"YOU STUPID GIRL!" he screamed, pulling himself free of her control. "Don't EVER say I didn't give you a chance to surrender!" The cars around them were stopped now, both in shock and fright of what was happening on the road. Aria backed up, trying to get out of his radius of control, but it was too slow, she felt him take magnetic control of her armor, and slam her down on the concrete. Her stomach flipped immediately following, as she was flung up in the air.

'Catch yourself!' she screamed in her head, but it wasn't working; no matter how hard she attempted to repel herself from the ground, it just kept getting closer. She opened her mouth to shriek in terror, throwing her hands in front of her face to shield her head, but was stopped by Ome, just before hitting the ground again.

"I'll show you exactly what I do with people who defy me," Ome snarled, launching himself upwards, and dragging Aria with him. As she was dragged limply, up through the air, she could feel the power radiating from him, just like yesterday. With a sinking feeling, she realized what was about to happen.

Ome set his feet once again on the top of the bridge. He held his arm up, holding Aria in the air, and smirked.

"I wanted so badly to teach you," he said, "and God knows I tried to reach out to you. But I see now that you would always be weak. Look at you; can't even break free of me."

"Go to hell," she whispered, knowing that anything she said now wouldn't affect what he was already going to do. He frowned, though. She knew he wanted her to beg him for mercy, and she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.

"That scientist I exterminated?" he said, giving her a cruel smile, "you can tell him I said hello, when you see him in hell." And with that, he let her go. Aria didn't even attempt to catch herself. She could feel the magnetic field around her shifting, stacking against her. Ome was forcing her down, towards the water with so much force, even if she'd been practicing with her powers for years, she couldn't overcome it.

'I saved Hattingsfeild,' she thought as she fell, her eyes beginning to water, though she didn't know if it was from emotion or the wind against her face. 'At least I did that. Hiro will find out, and know I did something good, instead of just messing everything up. I did good. And this is enough.' She was completely limp as she fell, and she knew this was how it was going to end. No one could survive an impact with the water at this velocity. But at least it would be quick. She closed her eyes.

* * *

The impact didn't feel like she thought it would. It felt much more…horizontal, than she thought it would be. Her eyes snapped open, wondering if she was dead already, but instead of her watery grave, she was greeted by bright red chest-plating. What was she looking at? Twisting her neck up, she was greeted by the face of Baymax, behind his helmet display.

"Hello, Aria," he said in that calm voice of his. She was speechless. Baymax was holding her in his arms as he flew, and she craned her neck to look back past his shoulder, wondering if she could see Ome. She couldn't, they were moving too fast, and it was too foggy. But what she could feel were the intense magnetic reverberations he was letting off from the top of the bridge. Baymax's flying was shaky, she noticed, from it, but he kept going. He was rescuing her.

"Ome's gonna be mad that you saved me," Aria said quietly, a little bit numb from the experience of preparing to die. Baymax didn't say anything to that, probably because his programming didn't know how to respond. But as they flew, no doubt back to the Lucky Cat Café, Aria was weightless. Emotionless. She felt…weirdly at peace. And she didn't quite know why.


	16. Chapter Sixteen - Heartfelt

Aria held the bottle of Gatorade in her hands. It was pretty cold, nearly full, except for the single drink she'd taken from it. It was a light pink sort of color, though she didn't really think it tasted like melon. To her, all Gatorade was just salty sugar water.

She'd asked Baymax if he could stop so she could buy one. She wasn't really sure what she'd been thinking, but in that moment, she'd just really wanted a Gatorade. The convenience store clerk had looked at her like she was an alien when she'd come up to the counter with it. Then again, she was still wearing her armor. And she was a bloodied mess.

"We should return home now," Baymax said, in his lovely monotone voice. He and Aria were standing on the sidewalk, drawing strange glances from early-morning pedestrians, as she sipped the sugary drink.

"…Let's not," she said, screwing the cap back on.

"But Hiro is waiting for us." Baymax turned to look in the direction of the Lucky Cat Café. Aria knew they were several blocks away; maybe that's why she'd wanted to stop? She didn't want to think about anything too hard right now. She'd almost just died, after all. "We should really get going."

"But…I'm still dehydrated," Aria said lamely, not feeling like moving from her spot. Maybe she'd grow roots, and grow into the sidewalk? She wished, anyway.

"You are not dehydrated," Baymax said, running a quick scan. "Your hydration levels are optimal. You do, however, have several lacerations to your head and body that require stitches. And your neurotransmitter levels have declined since my last scan, indicating mental function depression."

"Damn you and your scans," Aria mumbled, putting her helmet back on. From inside, she could see several small hairline cracks in the display. Hiro would have to fix that.

Hiro.

Oh, what would she tell him? She couldn't even decide if this had been a success or a failure! Hattingsfeild was no doubt being checked in at the emergency room right now, which meant he would live, which meant it was a success. But Ome was still at large, and now more pissed off than ever, which meant it was a failure. She couldn't decide if Hiro would be angry or happy with her, and if he was angry, well…she really couldn't take disappointing him anymore. She'd already broken ribs. She didn't want to hurt him anymore.

"Would you like to share what you're feeling?" Baymax asked, and when Aria looked up at him, confused, he continued. "Mood can be improved by sharing feelings and worries. Stress and anxiety can cause dips in mental capacity and function."

"I don't think you'd really understand, Baymax," she said, not feeling totally comfortable with pouring her feelings out to a robot. Especially one whose recordings Hiro had access to.

"I am a good listener," the robot said, which made Aria chuckle. Sighing, she moved to sit on the curb, tossing the Gatorade bottle between her hands. Baymax followed.

"I keep screwing things up," Aria said, her eyebrows coming together. "I'm afraid I've just made things worse by being here. Gogo says Hiro's been livelier lately, but…I just don't think I believe her. How can he be happier? I've brought nothing but trouble with me, I've broken his ribs, and now I've let Ome beat me and escape. I'm a royal screw-up; Hiro'd be better off without me." She wanted to curl up into a little ball; what was she even doing, telling Baymax this!? But he just looked on. Hiro was right, he was very non-intimidating.

"Hiro's neurotransmitter levels have been consistently higher than average since the day of your arrival," Baymax said, flipping through the recent records of Hiro's brain scans he kept. "Which does indeed indicate happiness. Chemical indicators in Hiro's brain suggest extreme attachment to you, Aria." He blinked his optical cameras twice, and Aria turned slowly to look at him. Extreme attachment? Did that mean… "And, you did not break Hiro's ribs. I did."

"You know what I mean, Baymax," Aria said, shaking her head. "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been crushed by you. It's all my fault."

"Would you like to hear the recording from that day?" Baymax asked suddenly, throwing Aria off guard.

"A recording?" she asked, solidifying her suspicion that Baymax recorded just about everything. Great. Baymax nodded, and then looked into the distance briefly, searching for the correct audio file. Once he found it, he replayed it through his audio speakers.

"Aria!" Hiro's voice sprung from Baymax, startling Aria. It was slightly static-y, and there was a lot of auxiliary noise in the background, but it was obvious when this recording was taking place; just after she'd been thrown battling Ome for the first time. "Baymax, go! Catch her!"

"Such an action will likely result in you being pinned to the metal frame of the building-" Baymax started, but was cut off quickly.

"I don't care, just save her!" There was more auxiliary noise, followed by the sound of an impact, and then a second, probably when the three of them hit the ground. The recording cut off after that.

"Hiro urged me to catch you, even after I warned him of the likely outcome," Baymax said, back to his regular voice. "If blame should fall on anyone's shoulders, it should be his." Aria was stunned. She had known Hiro had wanted to catch her, but hearing him say it, even through a recording, really kind of touched her. Even at risk of bodily harm, he'd wanted to protect her. Gogo was right, he was like his brother. "Your neurotransmitter levels are rising," Baymax observed, "is your mood improving?"

"Yeah," she said after a pause, "It is. C'mon. Let's go home."

* * *

"Aria!" She felt pretty bad, seeing Hiro look so worried. He stood up from the couch in the garage workshop, and she knew he must still have been in pain, though he didn't show it. She smiled weakly at him as she approached, Baymax close in tow.

"Hey," she said quietly, stopping short about a foot and took off her helmet, not knowing what else to do or say. But Hiro did. Stepping forward, he encased her in his arms, holding her close and burying his face in her hair. Aria's helmet fell to the floor as she hugged him back. "I was fighting Ome," she said bluntly, and Hiro held her tighter.

"I guessed as much," he said, his voice muffled against her hair. "God, I was so worried. I woke up and Baymax said you were gone. At first, I thought you'd run off because you were upset about yesterday. But then I realized why you had taken your suit and helmet."

"I'm sorry," she whispered against his chest, pressing her face against his shoulder, before she started to feel tears brimming. "I felt so bad about what happened yesterday. I just thought, if I could stop him by myself, no one else had to get hurt." She could hear Hiro's heart beating much too fast. Even beating rapidly, it calmed her. "But I couldn't. I had to let him get away."

"What happened?" Holding her at arm's length, the boy inspected the cuts on her face, the nastiest of which run from her temple up through her hairline. It would definitely need stitches, and was still bleeding slightly. "God, you're so beat up!"

"I…uh….I…" Biting her lower lip, she tried to keep her emotions down. Why was she feeling weepy all of a sudden!? She hadn't cried during, and she hadn't cried immediately after, but now she felt like having a good sob, at the most inopportune time! "I was able to save Hattingsfeild," she said weakly, her voice wavering. But Hiro didn't care about that.

"What did he do to you?" he asked, taking her head in both his hands and forcing her to look at him. She was startled by the intense look in his eye; worried, but determined. His hands felt so comforting against her skin.

"…He threw me," she started.

"That's not all, I know it's not." She bit her lip again.

"I couldn't…couldn't stop him. I don't know how he does it, but it was like…h-he was pushing me down…the v-velocity was t-too much…" Tears began to spill from her eyes, and the first sob wracked through her body. Hiro began wiping her tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. "I d-don't think I would h-have m-made it if Baym-max hadn't save me," she choked out between sobs, both embarrassed and relieved to be crying. If she could cry through this, she'd feel better afterwards. Hiro didn't seem to care, though, and held her close again.

"Thank God for Baymax," he whispered, half joking, half serious. Aria hiccupped in his arms, too emotional to say any more. She didn't know why she was crying, really. She was alive, but it almost felt like residual emotion. Like her mind had needed time to catch up with her body. And now that it had, it was making up for the numbness she'd felt earlier.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm a m-m-mess," she stuttered, pulling away and trying to dry her eyes with the back of her hand. It came back bloody, from the gash on her temple, and she wondered just how badly she looked right now. It couldn't have been pretty.

But again, Hiro surprised her. He didn't give her much time to think, really. He just grabbed her face in his hands, leaned forward, and kissed her. It was a shock, and at first, Aria froze up. What was he doing!? She'd just said how much of a mess she was! But she slowly melted against him, defrosting from her stupor, and kissed back. It said everything that she was too afraid to say in words; her fear, her loneliness, her desperation, her joy, comfort, trepidation, and longing. She kissed him back with everything she was worth, leaving nothing unspoken between them. And when they pulled away from each other, all that was left were a few left over tears, and her incredulous smile.

"…This is not the situation that I imagined my first kiss would happen in," she admitted, and Hiro laughed.

"Mine neither." He reached up, brushing her hair away from her face. "But I'm glad it was." Aria flushed, looking away, and realizing once again that Baymax was standing right there. Flinching when she saw him, her face got even redder.

"Baymax! Couldn't you have turned away!?" she gasped, which caused Hiro to laugh louder.

"He's a robot, not a priest," he said, and Aria scowled slightly.

"...But…he's so sentient…I feel weird that he watched that." Baymax showed no sign that he really even truly understood what had happened, but still. It unnerved Aria.

"You sort of get used to that," Hiro said, smiling down at her. He flopped back on the couch, breathing a bit heavier, and Aria once again realized that his ribcage was probably hurting him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Fine. It'll be like this for a while, I guess. I'll need to get used to this, too." Aria wished there was something she could do to help him, but nothing much could be done for broken ribs other than the treatment he'd already received. She frowned. "Hey. Don't worry about it. You should be worrying about that." He motioned to her head. "Baymax can stitch you up, can't you buddy?" Baymax perked up at being mentioned, and waddled over, nodding.

"Oh, yes," he affirmed, "I just need to remove the armor." He started to detach parts of the heavy red armor he wore, and Aria touched her wound lightly. It stung when she did, and she winced slightly.

"It was stupid of you to go alone," Hiro said, reaching behind the couch for a box of tissues. He plucked one out, and started dabbing at her temple. "You're not a burden to us. None of us are in this alone, we all have each other's backs. If I'd have known this was what you were planning on doing, I would have had Baymax ducttape you to the wall."

"This was sort of a spur of the moment decision," Aria admitted, which made Hiro's frown deepen.

"…well, that's just great," he said sarcastically, and sighed. "Promise me, Aria. Promise me you won't go off alone like that again."

"…I promise," she said quietly, allowing him to continue to clean up her face.

"Good. Because if I'd lost you today…." He looked away briefly, a truly troubled look crossing his face. It was the look of someone who'd experienced deep personal loss before. "…I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself." Aria knew that he meant it, and she touched his cheek, coaxing him to look back to her.

"I promise. I really do."


	17. Chapter Seventeen - Extrapolation

Honey Lemon was quite meticulous with her appearance. Everything in her life could be falling down around her, and she would still appear stylish, groomed, and above all else, poised. Hiro couldn't remember a single day he'd seen the girl without at least a pair of false lashes and lipstick. And he didn't even think Honey Lemon owned any sweats, let alone ever wore them.

But that was definitely something that changed the next morning. Honey had not had a good last few days. She was still sore from the failed fight two days ago, a sizable bruise covering most of her left side, and to top it all off, Hiro had been sending panicked texts yesterday about Aria, which had set her on edge. Plus, everything with her grandmother…so when she showed up to the SFIT lab the next morning, as Hiro requested, she wasn't her usual polished self.

"Honey Lemon, it's…whoa, uh…are you…um…" Hiro's eyebrows shot up his forehead when she slumped in, to-go cup of tea in one hand, bag in the other. Her hair was in a bun, but not the perfectly wind-swept bun she sometimes wore. It was mostly just shoved up into a knot on the top of her head. Her face was bare behind her glasses, which made her eyes look so much smaller than Hiro was used to seeing them, and she wore the plainest tunic and leggings combo Hiro had ever seen her wear. To say he was surprised by her appearance was an understatement. "I, uh…w-where are the others? They're coming, right?"

"Yes," she replied tiredly, setting her things down on a nearby table. "Gogo's getting Fred, and Wasabi wouldn't leave home without eating a 'proper' breakfast, so he might be a little late." She sighed, just utterly exhausted from everything that was happening, and turned her gaze back to Hiro. "More importantly, what are you doing out of bed?"

"That's what I said," Aria piped up as she stepped out into the main lab space. She was in street clothes, but was wearing her suit's gauntlets, and hovering what appeared to be a larger-scale version of a tesla cil, though there were some distinct differences. Setting the coil down, Aria walked up to the both of them, eyeing Hiro warily. "Baymax told him to stay in bed."

"Bed rest is essential for proper ribcage healing," Baymax piped up as he too emerged with a smaller version of the coil in his arms.

"Hey, look, look, we can admonish my carelessness later," Hiro said, before Honey could chide him on not following Baymax's direction. "Right now, we've got work to do."

"What are you doing with these generators?" Honey Lemon asked, wary to get near the volatile machines.

"Well, I kind of had an idea," he admitted, nodding his head to indicate Honey Lemon follow him. Inside his office space, his 3D printer was churning out a small device, that didn't yet have a proper shape, and the far wall was slathered in blueprints and data readout sheets. "Aria got me thinking. Did you notice, the way she was able to resist Ome? For a little while, anyway?"

"I didn't notice much that day, to be honest," Honey said, thinking back. She'd mostly been concentrating on not getting hurled through the air. She'd also be lying if she said she hadn't been keeping an eye on Wasabi.

"Well I did. Those pulses he let off knocked all of us back, but Aria seemed to weather them better. And look at this." Sitting down at his desk, he clicked a few things on his desktop computer, and brought up a video. "Yesterday, Aria tried to take Ome on by herself."

"What!?" Honey gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. "That's where she went? Why you were texting us like crazy!?"

"Yeah. Don't worry," he ran his hand through his hair, "she knows how dumb it was. She was just trying to protect us. Anyway, Baymax went out to look for her, and when he found her, he caught this footage." Clicking once more, the video on the screen started playing. It was shaky, and still a ways away from the Golden Gate Bridge; it must've been as Baymax was flying in. But it was clear, even at a distance what was going on. Ome was pursuing the car Hattingsfeild was escaping in, trying in vain to rip the vehicle off the road, and Aria stood atop it, countering and resisting his attacks. Honey Lemon watched in amazement.

"How is she doing that?" she asked quietly, as Hiro paused the video.

"That's what I wanted to know. So we came here last night, I kind of commandeered Gogo's electromag generator. I also upgraded Baymax with a few plugins that allow him to more accurately measure Aria's level of magnetic radiation, and this is what we found." He clicked again, bringing up an auxiliary program, which displayed several 3D figures. Clicking the 'start' button on the screen, the nondescript figures, one orange, one black, took stances across from each other. "The entire Earth is acted upon by these incredible forces of magnetic radiation, from it's core, from other plants, from the sun," the air around the figures was depicted as wavy lines, indicating the pervasive magnetic force Hiro was talking about. "Normal people, like you and me, just pass through these forces when they're weak, like if you were to stand next to the electromag generator. It's not going to attract you, obviously, like it would Aria."

The little black figure started walking forward, pushing through the wavy lines. Neither the lines nor the figure were in any way affected.

"But obviously, we're attached to the Earth by gravity, so if the force is strong enough, it can act on even nonmagnetic things like us. But for Aria, the scans showed that she's acting more like a super-conductor for these forces." The lines around the orange figure started to waver, and then bend around it. "Not only was she bending it towards herself, she was also bending it away. Before I regulated it, it was getting more powerful by the day. Regulated, and when she's in stasis, she's just like you and me."

"Okay," Honey Lemon said, following what Hiro was saying. "I get that. But what's that got to do with keeping Ome at bay?"

"I'm getting to that," he said. "Ome's using his powers unregulated, and I have no idea what his level of control is, but I'm guessing his control over it gets weaker the more he pushes it. So the more powerful he gets, the more dangerous, and he lets off these unregulated pulses of magnetic radiation. Powerful enough to knock the rest of us back. But watch." The black figure on the screen was bending the radiation around it in waves, acting like Ome and his magnetic pulses, knocking the orange figure back. But as soon as the orange figure began to take control over the surrounding radiation, it formed a bubble around itself, and the waves rippled around the orange figure, instead of against it.

"When she's got enough control over it," Honey said, realizing what was happening, "she's totally out of Ome's influence!"

"Bingo." Closing out the window, Hiro leaned back in his chair, wincing at the pain still lingering in his chest. "So, I figured, if someone was able to irradiate Aria without even meaning to, I could build something that could do roughly the same thing." Sweeping a few papers off the surface of his desk, he picked up what looked like the headpiece that controlled the microbots.

"…What's it do?" Honey said, picking it up from his hands.

"Disrupts the electromagnetic spectrum," he said, grinning. "I'm still tweaking it, but it'll create the same sort of bubble that Aria can create around whoever's wearing it. It obviously isn't going to be as strong; nothing can really compare to Aria and Ome, and the two of them technically aren't even running on the traditional spectrum, but it'll give us more of an edge than last time."

"Oh, Hiro…this is amazing!" Honey said, turning it over in her hands once more, before handing it back. "Last time felt like such a slaughter, I was really wondering what you'd pull out of your hat, but this exceeded my expectations!" Some color had returned to her pallid face, and she brightened up, which made Hiro happy. He didn't like to see his usually chipper friend so run down like she was.

"Thanks, but I-" before Hiro could continue, a loud crash could be heard from the main lab, followed by Baymax's usual "Oh No."

"Crap! Hiro!" he heard Aria call, and shook his head.

"I'll be right back." Standing slowly, gingerly due to his injury, he left Honey standing in his office to help Aria with whatever it was she'd just dropped. Still in minor disbelief, and rather sore and tired, Honey Lemon sat down at his desk, and turned to face his computer. Hiro really was a genius. She didn't know where he came up with ideas like this! But it was brilliant, that was for sure!

"I would have never guessed Aria could become so powerful," she mumbled to herself, clicking into the video of her facing Ome that Baymax took again. She skipped forward a few parts, really studying how the girl was resisting his control. The girl on the screen seemed so different than the nervous, twitchy girl they'd first met in the café, not two weeks ago. She skipped through a bit more, but became curious when the scene appeared to change. Playing at normal speed, it looked like the video was still from Baymax's perspective, but it was taken inside Hiro's workshop. Aria was a fair bit worse for wear now, sporting several deep gashes, and was crying.

'Poor dear,' Honey thought sympathetically. 'I can really relate to wanting to have a good cry.' She was lost in her own thoughts for a moment, reflecting back on all the things weighing heavily on her mind lately, not really paying attention to the video as it continued to play. That is, not until Hiro kissed Aria.

"I knew it!" she gasped, smiling as she stood up. She'd known Hiro had feelings for Aria, there was no hiding this kind of thing from Honey Lemon. Scrambling away from the desk, she burst out the door to Hiro's office, catching both him and Aria off guard as they were attempting to stand back up the last generator. "I knew it!" she repeated, giggling, and ran up to Hiro. She scooped him up into a hug, picking him up slightly, seeing as she was taller in her heels than him. He looked perplexed, and Aria raised an eyebrow.

"Knew what?" he asked, as she set him down.

"That thing we were talking about!" she sang, and rushed to give Aria a similar hug.

"What thing?" Aria squeaked, crushed in Honey's embrace. Hiro's wore a confused expression, but realization slowly dawned on him, and he looked quickly between Honey and his office.

"Ah, no, you didn't play the rest of the video!?" he asked. She nodded gleefully.

"What?" Aria felt completely lost, but knew that if Hiro was horrified by whatever it was, she probably should be too. His face was red, indignantly so, and he covered his eyes with the heels of his palms. "I'd totally love to be in on whatever it is we're talking about."

"She knows we're tog….uh, that we kissed," Hiro said flatly, catching himself before he could finish 'together'. Honestly, he didn't know if they were really 'together' or not yet. No doubt that he would've been thrilled if they were, but, he didn't want to be presumptuous. He grew even redder, if that were possible. Similarly, Aria blushed, hard, and gaped at Honey Lemon.

"Oh, I knew you guys were crushing on each other waaaay before now," Honey said, laughing slightly, but only adding to Aria's embarrassment. "And I totally, 100% condone it! Oh, you guys are so cute together!"

"Who's cute together?" Aria felt like hyperventilating as Fred burst into the lab, much to energized for so early in the morning, followed by a much more subdued Gogo. "Are you guys talking about my OTP of Baymax and a sentient version of Iron Man's armor!? Because I'm telling you-"

"What!? No! Fred!" Hiro threw his hands up, but couldn't keep a smile from cracking across his rode-hued face.

"Okay, you got me up. Now tell me what I'm doing here or I'm going to take a nap on top of my work station," Gogo said, yawning slightly. Hiro, giving Honey a very pointed look, went to fetch the prototype he'd shown her earlier. Not before exchanging glances with Aria, though. They were getting good at communicating nonverbally; just that glance said a lot.


	18. Chapter Eighteen - Shatter

Aria picked at a snag in the catsuit of her armor. She was sitting next to Honey Lemon, who was tapping away at her phone. Gogo was murmuring something to Wasabi as she secured her helmet over her head, and Fred was trying his hardest to attract one of the various metal objects from around the workshop.

"Your regulator doesn't work like that," Gogo piped up, rolling her eyes at him. He continued to try, though.

"I won't stop trying until I have my superpowers, damnit!" he said. Aria looked on numbly. She was happy Hiro's idea was going to make fighting Ome easier, but she was still on edge. Ome was ridiculously powerful, she wasn't sure if he was going to pull anything out of his sleeve to muss up their plan. She really just wanted this to end, so everyone could go back to being happy, and she wouldn't feel so responsible for the stress she was causing.

"Uh oh." Looking back at Honey Lemon, Aria peeked over her shoulder at the phone. Honey was scrolling through an article from earlier this morning. "Ome's in the news again. He trashed an independent lab this morning. No one was hurt, but the place is totaled." She held it up for the others to see.

"What was the name of the lab?" Aria asked, suddenly anxious. Scrolling through a bit more, Honey's eyebrows scrunched together.

"Uh, it looks like it was Rechiard Tech inc. Why?" The others looked up to see Aria go white.

"That's the lab that serviced the trials," she said quietly, going through every scenario in her mind. It really could only mean one thing. "Ome can't destroy the scientists who did this, so he's just striking out at the institutions now." Gogo leaned forward, putting a hand on Aria's shoulder.

"Where else was involved with the trials?" she asked gravely, and Aria swallowed hard.

"One other lab. And the San Fransokyo Hospital." Gogo leaned away, crossing her arms. Wasabi and Honey exchanged worried glances.

"We don't have any time to lose, then." Grabbing Fred by the arm and motioning to Baymax, who was already suited up, she started towards the alleyway. "We've got to go now."

"Leaving without me?" Stepping out into the garage wearing his suit was none other than Hiro. But as soon as he appeared everyone was on their feet protesting it. Hiro felt a little cornered.

"Are you crazy?" Wasabi asked. "You can't fight! Dude, you SHOULD be in bed!"

"Hiro, your ribs are broken." Gogo walked up and plucked his helmet off his head. "Like any of us is gonna let you fight in this condition. Look." She poked him in the chest, not even very hard, and he winced. "Ome's not going to go easy on you because you're already injured."

"Look, I'm wearing armor, I'm fine." Recovering from the poke quickly, he tried to edge around Gogo towards Baymax. "Besides, with these regulators, Ome won't be much of a threat anyway. And I'll be with Baymax. He won't let anything bad happen."

"Hiro," Aria said, finally speaking up. "I know you want to help, but, you really should stay here." He gave her a surprised look; he'd counted on Aria at least backing him up. "You could get hurt worse. I…er, none of us want that."

"Look, I know you guys are all worried about me but seriously, I'll be-"

"Hiro." Hearing Baymax speak up, Hiro stopped midsentence. The robot waddled forward. "It is highly inadvisable for you to enter into a combat zone. Blunt force damage to your chest could result in a punctured lung, or worse." He scanned Hiro as he spoke, taking note of the high level of stress hormones in his brain; he did a very good job of hiding it, but just being up and about, he was dealing with a lot of pain.

"…Well, what if something goes wrong with the regulators?" he asked, grasping at straws now. The last thing he wanted to do was be left behind. He'd be completely helpless, just waiting to see if they came back alive, or… "I've gatta be there in case something breaks, or malfunctions." He shot helpless glances all around, and the others shared their own worried looks. Wasabi was still shaking his head, but Honey Lemon and Gogo seemed to be sharing a silent conversation. Fred was…well, Fred was hidden in his suit, so Aria couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"You stay with Baymax," Gogo finally said, stabbing a finger at Hiro. "Don't take any unnecessary risks. And leave the hand to hand to us." Her eyes were narrowed slightly, but Hiro knew it wasn't meant with hostility, this was just the way she expressed concern for her friends. Nodding, he grinned.

"Definitely," he promised, though in the back of his head, he knew there was no way he'd let them do all the work. If he was going, he was putting in a full effort, even if Gogo bitched him out afterwards. Turning to look at Aria in triumph, his grin fell slightly at the look she wore. It certainly wasn't happy. "Why the long face?" he asked, walking up beside her and slipping his helmet back on.

"Please don't get hurt worse," she pleaded quietly, the microphone in her headset shut off, so only Hiro could hear. "Having to see you all broken was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. And yes, I'm including getting magnetized in that scope." She looked up through her lashes at him, mouth drawn into a thin line. Hiro was startled by the intensity of that look; Aria was usually pretty carefree, if not a little anxious. That's what he liked so much about her. But this, this was another level. More so than what the others said, this hit home. Hard.

"I promise," he said solemnly. "I won't get hurt. You have to trust me." He leaned down, the forehead of his helmet bumping against hers.

"You know I do."

* * *

Ome stood outside the sterile building. This wing had just been built last year. It was very modern, very chic. Fit into the layout of the surrounding neighborhood nicely.

Too bad it had to go.

"Hello!" the receptionist chirped, as Ome stepped through the sliding doors into the lobby. "I can sign you in right here if you're here for treatments. If you're just visiting a patient, Tammy can take you at the check-in down the hall." Ome stood quietly for a moment, just staring at the woman. Her chipper smile faltered as he continued to stand still, not saying anything, and her eyes shifted around awkwardly. "Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked, and Ome nodded.

"You're quite pretty," the man said, appraising her looks. This comment caused her to stiffen. "It would be a shame if you died. So I suggest you leave. Now."

"What? I don't-" she started, alarmed by what he'd said, but before she could finish, Ome snapped his fingers, and the sliding doors behind burst from their hinges. They were blown out backwards into the parking lot.

"Out. NOW!" There was no more hesitation. The receptionist, and everyone else who'd witnessed it ran like the devil was chasing them, and Ome cracked a smile. "This inside doesn't look nearly as nice as the outside," he mused, walking the halls. "Leave it to me to get picky about hospitals. Oh well. I suppose it's time for a little redecorating." As he passed a nurse pushing a cart full of instruments, the cart tipped, sending it's contents flying. With a simple flick of his hand, the cart flew from the ground, nearly hitting the nurse, and lodged itself into the tiles of the ceiling.

The chaos rippled from there. Trailing his hand along the wall, he could feel the steel gerters behind the plaster. Closing his hand into the fist, an ungodly creaking and groaning was heard from inside the wall, and when he pulled his fist back, the crushed metal was pulled through the drywall. Overhead, more creaking could be heard, as well as screams and incessant blipping of equipment, as the second floor became destabilized by the damaged load-bearing wall.

Passing a wall sign, he glanced at it, smiling. 'Oncology', it read. He was in the right place. He continued down the hall, looking for another gerter to dislodge, when an even louder groaning of construction materials could be heard. Turning quickly, he was greeted by Baymax, holding up the sagging ceiling, and those standing on the floor above it.

"What!?" he gasped, but had to dodge quickly, as one of Gogo's disks whizzed past his head.

"We gave you the chance to stop this," Aria said, stepping around the corner. "But we're not so forgiving now. You're going to get someone killed, Ome."

"You think that's not my intention?" he said, his mouth curling up into a snarl. "I shouldn't killed you when I had you in my grasp."

"I'm afraid that's not gonna happen today." Wasabi and Honey Lemon came to stand behind her, followed by Gogo, who held her arm up to catch her returning disk.

"Honey, you help Hiro and Baymax evacuate the building," Gogo said. Honey nodded quickly, and then dashed off.

"I beat you before, and I'll do it again," Ome said through gritted teeth. "No stupid kids are gonna get between me and my revenge!" Pulling a nearby cart off the ground, Ome flung it at Aria, who easily deflected it.

"Gogo, now!" Aria called, jumping forward towards Ome, as her teammate sped from behind her. The disk she threw was nowhere near hitting him, but as he laughed, the magnetic disk looped back around and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Get him out of here!" Aria heard Wasabi say, as he sidestepped around Ome, deeper into the corridors to help evacuation.

"On it!" Channeling all of her focus, Aria brought her foot down on the ground, propelling Ome up into the air. Grabbing hold magnetically, she flung him out of the corridor and into the lobby, where he landed flat on his back. Following him, Aria shoved back against the pulses he was throwing off, knocking him back out of the doors as he tried to stand. "You thought we'd just let you hurt innocent people, Ome?"

"I thought you'd be easier to kill," he said, scrambling up. "But I always liked a challenge." He thrust his arm forward, trying to grab hold of Gogo's armor, to crash her into Aria, but neither girl budged from the ground. He was shocked, and hesitated, before trying it again. Nothing happened. "What did you do?" he asked quietly. Both girls smirked at each other.

"Not so hot now that you can't toss us around?" Gogo asked, popping her gum.

"We've just evened the playing field." Gogo was the first to attack, crashing into Ome at blinding speed, carrying him backwards, and slamming him against a nearby car's hood. Almost lazily, Aria bent the metal of the hood around Ome, overcoming his effort to resist and tear the metal apart.

"Top floor's clear," Fred announced, landing beside Gogo, from where he'd jumped from the third floor.

"So's ground level," Honey said through the headset, just as Wasabi emerged from the building.

"You've lost the fight, Ome," Aria said, walking up to him as he struggled. "But we can still help you. We can take away this burden. All you have to do is stop fighting against us."

"A burden?" he asked quietly, ceasing his struggles. He looked up at Aria, his eyes wide in a way that didn't sit right with her. "You think my power burdens me? Oh, my dear sweet girl." He started chuckling. She could feel his power pushing back against hers, and while she thought she was able to hold him, she was wrong. He was starting to overpower her ability to keep him in place. "The only thing that's burdening me…is you."

"Everyone's out," Aria heard Hiro say over the headset, just as Ome threw his arms out, untwisting the metal around him. Standing and advancing, his eyes flickered to the rest of the team. Smirking, he didn't even have to move a muscle; the shockwave that rolled off of him sent the others flying, regulators be damned.

"What," Aria gasped, only just barely able to stay on her feet. "No, you can't….the regulators-" She was cut off, as Ome sped forward, taking hold of her neck with both hands.

"How many times do I have to tell you, you stupid girl?" he snarled, picking her up, her feet dangling off the ground as she struggled to breath. "Technology is no match for my raw power. I tried to warn you. I tried to get you to abandon these little toys. But you wouldn't listen. And now, I have to kill you. It's only logical, I hope you understand." Releasing her neck, Aria gasped for breath, but didn't fall to the ground. He was holding her up, suspended, one hand on each side of her head, inches from either ear. Her eyes grew wide as she realized what he was about to do. "And this time, you'll stay dead."

There was nothing on Earth that could describe it. It was like some unfelt pressure, boring down on either side of her face. Her mouth opened, but her voicebox wasn't working, and no scream came out. Her eyes squeezed shut, and every other sound was drowned out by an unrelenting, horrible roar in her ears. Putting her hands on the side of her head didn't relieve the pain, and the more Ome concentrated, the worse it felt. She was sure her head was going to be squished by this weird pressure. In her last few seconds of consciousness, as her helmet started to crack and break around her head from the magnetic pressure, she wondered if this was how the scientist Ome had killed felt.

Hiro raced down the stairs, ignoring the pain radiating from his chest each time his foot hit a new step. This was no time to double over. Everyone was out of the building, and he and Baymax were the last two left.

"Baymax, c'mon!" he shouted, terrified by the creaking the entire building was making. Pulling out gerters, it seemed, was not great for the structural integrity of a building. Baymax was still in the first floor hallway, holding up the sagging ceiling. "We havta go, buddy!"

"This building may collapse if I let it go," Baymax chirped, but Hiro had already climbed up onto his back.

"We have to let it go, Baymax. Everyone's out, it doesn't matter if it collapses." Baymax nodded, his wings popping out at the same moment he let go. The two sped out of the lobby as several internal walls collapsed on themselves, bringing the middle of the building down.

Unfortunately, the sight Hiro was greeted with outside was not any better than inside. He'd arrived just as the others were blown back by Ome's shockwave. He too was knocked off his feet, stars popping in front of his eyes as he landed. He groaned as he heard Aria gasp in disbelief through the headset.

"No, you can't….the regulators-" but she was cut off. Trying to right himself with some difficulty, his eyes grew wide as Ome picked up the fragile-looking girl, squeezing her neck and cutting off her airflow.

"Aria!" he wheezed. His chest was on fire, but he didn't care. He tried to rush towards the two living magnets, but was held at bay by Ome's forces. He was helpless as Ome held her up, and proceeded to give her the same treatment as the first scientist. "Baymax! Do something!" he shouted, but his robot was similarly helpless. "Aria, fight it!" he called through the headset. "I know you can! Fight it off! Don't let him-"

Everyone was silent as her helmet shattered. It served as a visual metaphor for what Ome had done to her. Her body was lax in his grip, and when he let her go, she slumped to the ground amid the broken carbon fiber and plexiglass. As Hiro looked on in horror, he could see her face. She looked relaxed, like she might've just been sleeping.

But he knew she wasn't.


	19. Chapter Nineteen - Out of the Void

There were so many times in Hiro's life that he wished he could have done something. He was too young to do anything to prevent his parent's deaths. But Tadashi. He could have done something, anything, to try and keep his brother from chasing Callaghan into the fire. And now, there was this.

He was completely still. He felt frozen, with his eyes wide and his mouth still open. Part of him couldn't believe that Ome had done it. Part of him couldn't believe that Aria was dead. But she looked so small, crumpled on the pavement like that. Like a little bird. Her face was turned upwards, and her lips parted slightly. She certainly didn't look like she was in pain anymore.

Sound came back to Hiro slowly. It bled into his consciousness, and at first, it was indiscernible sounds. Those sounds morphed into the voices of his friends, though, each expressing their shock and grief at what had been done to Aria.

"You monster!" Honey Lemon shrieked, hurling some sort of explosive concoction at Ome. It his him broad side, knocking him away from where Aria lay, and Gogo took his momentary disorientation as an open invitation to charge. As she sped past Hiro, he noticed the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

"Aria," he whispered, still not believing that she was dead. Taking a few steps towards her, he broke into a run, sliding to his knees beside her. "Aria! Aria, say something!" He took her head in his hands, looking down into her face. "Wake up! Wake up damn it!" He ripped his helmet off and threw it to the side, and bent down, touching his forehead to hers. She was still warm. "No…no! Not you! Not you too! Aria!"

He felt so volatile, like a chemical reaction just waiting to happen. The pain in his chest had nothing to do with his ribs, and a sob ripped through his throat. Not again, this couldn't happen to him again! It felt like every time he loved someone, the universe had to take them away from him. It wasn't fair! Aria was a good person, this shouldn't have happened to her! Several tears streaked down his cheeks, falling on Aria's still face.

"I wouldn't grieve for too long," Ome laughed, merely batting the other members of Big Hero 6 away, like a cat playing with string. They were nothing to him, nothing at all. Hiro was yanked away from Aria by Ome, lifted into the air upside down, before being tossed across the parking lot, landing hard on his side. Pain exploded from his already aching chest, and it was all he could do to keep from passing out right then and there.

"Not gonna kill me?" Hiro groaned, trying to stand. He was again yanked into the air, this time tossed against the hood of a nearby car. He wasn't so quick to stand again.

"Oh, rest assured, I'm going to snuff each and every one of you pesky little mosquitos out," Ome said, walking over to loom over Hiro. He had an overly calm air about him. "And I think I'll start with you, since you're so attached to little Miss Magnet over there. You'll be the first to join her in hell." He picked Hiro up by the front of his suit, and he put up little protest. He hadn't the strength left to struggle.

"Do it then," Hiro spat, glaring through his tears.

* * *

"I can't die yet."

It took Aria a minute to realize she'd said this out loud. She hadn't known she'd had the capability to talk. She thought she was dead. But here she was. So she must be somewhere, right? But looking around, all she could see was black.

"Where am I? What am I doing here?"

"I think Ome killed me."

"Almost killed me." The black nothingness around her started to shift slightly. It looked like someone was trying to focus a wide-angle camera all around her. Squinting, she tried to make sense of the colors and shapes drifting lazily around her. And that's when the spinning started.

Her feet remained planted firmly on…whatever it was she was standing on. But everything around her spun at blinding speeds, the colors mixing and blending and forming new things. It all stopped so suddenly, she almost fell over. And she was suddenly on the stoop of an unfamiliar house.

"You could help with some of this stuff, Miss 'I don't need muscles to lift things'," she heard someone say playfully behind her, but as soon as she turned to see who'd spoken, the scene spun again. It was faster this time, if that were possible, and when it stopped again, she was inside an unfamiliar house. She stood, looking around the cluttered room she was in, a living room it looked like, and the voice spoke again.

"Hey, I said I'd get it for you," a figure said, coming around the corner. He wasn't out of focus, but Aria couldn't tell for the life of her who it was. He seemed familiar. "You just rest. I don't want you straining yourself."

"Straining myself?" she asked, but no sooner had the words left her mouth, the world spun again, ripping the living room away. When it stopped again, the same figure was there. His name was on the tip of her tongue, what was it? He was holding a struggling child, a girl, trying to wrestle mary janes on her feet. Again and again her world spun, displaying more and more scenes that seemed vaguely familiar, though she'd never experienced them before; children fighting, Thanksgiving get-togethers, graduations. There was one of a boy levitating a lamp. One of a girl manipulating 3D figures on a computer. One of a robot.

She knew that robot. Who was he? What was he?

"I know these things," she said to herself, trying to concentrate. "Gatta focus…what are these things…ug, I can't concentrate with all this spinning!" Putting her hands on either side of her head, the spinning abruptly stopped. But so did the vibrant scenes. Again, the black consumed her. But now, at least, there was another voice besides her own.

"Aria!"

"What!?" She called out to whoever had called her, but she couldn't see anyone.

"Aria, say something!"

"I'm saying something right now!" she screamed into the void. "Can't you hear me!? I'm right here!"

"Wake up! Wake up damn it!" This one really scared her; was she just sleeping? She didn't feel like this was a dream. It seemed too real.

"Am I asleep?" she asked the voice, but she got no answer. She whipped her head around, and took a few steps. "Who are you!? Hey, answer me! Am I asleep!?" Suddenly, she felt something hit her face, and touched her cheek. It was clear, and as she realized it must be tears, she got even more panicked. "I'm not crying though," she whispered.

"No! No, no…" Aria was seriously freaked out now, and she wanted answers. But nothing she was doing or saying was reaching the voice. Falling to her knees, she scrunched her eyes shut tight and held her hands together to her chest.

"I'm right here! Please! Please answer me! Please!" she shouted. She didn't think she could take one more second of this confusing blackness, it was hurting her in some way she couldn't even begin to describe. And just as she started to fall apart, losing herself to the abyss, she was yanked up and out of the void.

Aria's next breath was deep and startled. As she gasped for breath, her eyes flew open, though she couldn't immediately comprehend what was going on. It was all colors at first, the light burning her pupils. She squinted up at the sky, just breathing, just trying to reacclimate to the world of the living.

The world of the living really hurt.

Her whole body was sore, and as she lifted her head, she found her neck intensely stiff. How long had she been out? It couldn't have been long, seeing as the team was still battling Ome.

Oh shit.

Jerking her head around, she tried to see where Hiro was, and looked up just in time to see Ome slam him against the hood of a car. She felt her voice catch in her throat at seeing Hiro tossed around like that, and she shakily got to her knees. No one yet had realized that she was up and moving.

"Hiro," she said weakly, her voice not ready to come out of dormancy.

"I'm going to snuff each and every one of you pesky little mosquitos out, and I think I'll start with you," she heard Ome sneer, picking Hiro up by his collar. It felt like someone had punched her in the gut as she watched Hiro hang in the air as Ome moved to hold him up magnetically…like he had to her.

"No," she gasped, getting to her feet.

"Do it then," Hiro rasped. And with that, Aria felt something snap inside her.

"No…NO! LET HIM GO!" It was like she'd opened the floodgates. Without her regulator, she was feeling every iota of power that she'd been denied previously. Her insides felt wrong, broken, as they were flooded with enough energy to power the sun. She could feel her consciousness stretching deep into the Earth, gripping everything and anything it could get it's hands on. Halting the plates, shifting the crust, changing the currents. It was so monumental, so exhilarating…so uncontrollable. There was no end to this power. She could feel in in every channel and crevice of the Earth. She could feel every footstep, every heartbeat, every electrical pulse. This wasn't mere magnetism. Not anymore.

She hardly needed to think at all. She burst forward, slamming into Ome from behind. The two of them went flying, amid shocked gasps and cheers from the team, and it was a long time before they hit the ground. But Aria hardly felt the impact. It was like she had tunnel vision, and the only thing she could focus on was Ome.

"HOW DARE YOU!" she screeched, throwing him up into the air with just a flick of her hand, and bringing him down again. "YOU DON'T FUCKING TOUCH HIM! ANY OF THEM!"

"How are you overpowering me!?" Ome asked, genuinely terrified at the power he could feel rippling off of her. But she had no answer for him. Instead, as he lay looking up at her in horror from the ground, she lifted her foot. She'd meant to bring it down on his stomach, but he rolled at the last second, and her heel met concrete. It didn't faze her one bit though. In fact, when her foot made contact with the ground, it caused something of a butterfly effect. The team was thrown off balance by the ripple effect. And as soon as they began to get it back, they felt themselves begin to lift from the ground.

"Aria!" Gogo shouted, trying in vain to put her feet back on the ground. "Aria, what are you doing!?" Breathing hard, Aria glanced at her teammates, and panic flashed in her eyes.

"I don't know," she admitted, startled, as her voice didn't even sound like her own anymore. She looked back at Ome. He too was rendered airborne. And now that she controlled the forces acting around them, he was powerless. "But I know I'm going to finish this." Taking hold of Ome, Aria shot upwards, dragging him along with her. Her face was as hard as stone as she glared at him. And here, holding him hundreds of feet in the air, she could still feel herself connected to the larger forces of the Earth. In that moment, the planet felt like nothing more than one oversized battery, fueling her rage.

"I guess I'm harder to kill than you thought," she said quietly. Ome, looking at the ground under him and knowing he would not be able to catch himself, turned his terrified face up at the teenager.

"Please," he begged, reaching out for her in vain. "Please! I can change! I can! I'm…I'm just a man, for God's sakes!"

"Change!?" she snarled, getting up in his face. "I gave you a chance to change! And what did you do with it!? You tried to kill me and my friends!" The louder and angrier Aria grew, the worse gravity was being manipulated. It kept increasing and decreasing at varied intervals, following the waves of energy escaping from her. The building below her, collapsed from the inside out, was being torn in chunks below them, cars being toppled. And it wasn't just in the immediate vicinity either. Sirens could be heard going off in the city, the squealing of tires, the screams of people. She was messing with powers she had no hope of controlling, and she had no idea how to turn it off. Nor did she want to.

"Please!" Ome was a hyperventilating mess, and Aria almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Now that he was rendered powerless, he was just pathetic.

"Say goodbye, Ome."

"ARIA!" Before she could send Ome slamming into the ground, Aria looked down. Hiro was the one who'd called to her. He was clinging desperately to Baymax, who was using his thrusters to try and keep them steady. "Aria, stop this!"

"He deserves it," she said, pressing her lips into a thin line. She could feel tears at the edge of her eyes, but didn't want to cry in front of her enemy, even if she had him at her mercy.

"No, he doesn't! No one deserves death!" She looked back down at him. He looked so small. "I've been where you are, Aria! I know what you're thinking! But this isn't the way." Her chin started to tremble, and she turned her head away.

"He tried to kill you," she said, her voice wavering.

"How do you think I felt when I thought he'd killed you?" Her heartbeat faltered at his words, and she felt like doubling over. It was only then that she realized what the voice speaking to her in the darkness was. "Put him down, Aria. Just calm down. Everything's alright now." Aria looked one more time at Ome. She expected to still feel enraged by the sight of him, but that feeling was gone. Hiro was right. Killing Ome would solve nothing. She let him lower to the ground.

As she started to calm down, the gravity beneath her began to stabilize again, and the team were finally able to stand up right. She watched from her high vantage point as the waters of the bay calmed themselves, ad the bridge in the distance stopped swaying. She could feel her consciousness leeching from the Earth, being expelled, and her energy began to drain. She felt weak. Too weak to be so high up. 'I have to get lower', she thought, but before she could take even a single step, she felt her knees buckle.

"Baymax! Catch her!" was the last thing she heard, before she blacked out.


	20. Chapter Twenty - Couple

Aria sat up in bed. She didn't know what time it was; there was an alarm on the side of the bed, but it wasn't the correct time, it said it was 1 pm, and that certainly wasn't right. It was the middle of the night. But when Aria had been messing with the electromagnetivity of the Earth, she'd pretty much screwed up every digital clock in the city. She figured it must've been about 2 or 3 in the morning. And she couldn't get back to sleep.

She kept having such weird, confusing dreams. Half the time, her dreams consisted of the things she'd seen as she'd been laying unconscious after Ome had tried to kill her. Those dreams weren't so bad, just puzzling. She couldn't make sense of any of the scenes that had spun around her. She knew now that the figure she kept seeing was Hiro, but why? What was going on in them? She just couldn't figure it out.

The other half the time, her dreams turned sour. She got to relive the horror of seeing Ome nearly kill Hiro over and over. Each time, she'd try to run and save him, but each step she took, the two would get further and further away, and would always end with Hiro, screaming in agony. She knew it wasn't real, but it shattered her heart more each time she relived the nightmare. It was making her insane.

She pulled her knees up to her chest. Tadashi's side of the room was so clean and organized. Hiro had kept everything the same since his older brother's passing, not even sitting on the bed. But after Aria had passed out midair, he'd brought her back here, and tucked her into covers that hadn't been disturbed in years. It felt too intimate for her. Like she was stepping on Tadashi's grave stone. She'd woken there earlier that evening, but Baymax had been the only one there. He'd told her to go back to sleep, which she'd been trying to do for the past few hours. She kept waking up.

She knew Hiro was sleeping on the other side of the paper partition, in his own bed by now. She'd heard him come in earlier, aided by Aunt Cass. Aria wondered now how he was doing. He had to have more broken ribs, there was no way he could have walked away from what Ome did to him without more broken ribs. At least. She let out a ragged breath.

'Poor Hiro,' she thought, burying her face against her knees. 'Why'd I have to almost die? I should've been there. I was the only one who could've stopped Ome from hurting him.' These were useless thoughts to be having; what happened happened. But she couldn't help herself. It was in her nature to beat herself up about these things. Especially when it pertained to someone she cared so much about. 'I bet Hiro's disappointed in me,' she thought. 'I was too weak to fight Ome off. He almost killed me. I let Ome beat Hiro up, and then I nearly lost control, screwed up gravity, and almost killed Ome. He probably thinks I'm some out of control freak. Great. Just great.'

It was right about then that Aria heard movement on the other side of the partition. Looking up, she could see Hiro's silhouette sit up in bed, resting his forehead in one hand. He was awake. Aria perked up.

"Can't sleep either?" she whispered in the dark, pushing the partition aside slightly. Hiro looked up, surprised to see Aria awake as well.

"No," he answered, rubbing his eyes. Aria bit her lip, hesitating for a moment, but then decided to be brave. She was in what must've been a pair of Aunt Cass' pajamas, and in her sock feet, she tiptoed over, and sat next to Hiro in bed.

"Is it dreams for you too?" she asked sheepishly. He nodded in response. Her eyes dropped to her hands. "Yeah. It's hard to sleep like this."

"Are you dreaming about Ome attacking you?" he asked. His eyes were so dark, that in the dim light of the early-early morning, Aria couldn't distinguish between his pupils and irises. But she knew he was looking right at her.

"No. About him attacking you," she said. Her hands trembled slightly.

"What?" His eyebrows shot up. "I'm not the one he…I'm fine, Aria. He didn't even come close to killing me." She glanced at him sideways, flushing from unhappiness and embarrassment.

"Yes he did," she said, her voice wavering. She didn't want to cry, not now! "I thought he was going to. I…I thought…"

"You're the one who was laying, seemingly dead on the ground at his feet." Their words were soft in the dark, though they hadn't needed to whisper. It just felt right, though. "Aria, when I thought you were dead…I can't even explain how I felt." He lifted a hand, touching her cheek and turning her face to look at him. "It hurt so bad. I hadn't felt that way in years, not since Tadashi. It felt like everything I had to look forward to was now gone. I never want to feel that way again." He pressed his forehead against hers, his hand snaking through her hair, holding her close. He closed his eyes, and Aria was shocked to see tears streak down his cheeks.

"Don't cry," she said weakly, holding both sides of his face in her hands. "I'm here. I'm not dead."

"You have no idea how thankful I am that you aren't." He didn't lean forward, didn't kiss her, but the moment felt as intimate as if he had. There in the dark, being so close, sharing each other's sorrow and relief, Aria felt closer to him than ever. It was like she'd been waiting her whole life to meet him. Everything that had led up to that first day in the café; getting irradiated, the cancer, her isolation during high school, her shyness as a child. It was all working towards one goal, and he was sitting right in front of her. How could she not celebrate every step it took to arrive here? The same moment she opened her eyes to look at him, he did the same.

"I think I love you," she whispered, and was immediately shocked by what her mouth had said. It had acted of it's own accord, she hadn't meant to let it slip out loud. But now that it had, she felt both nervous, and exhilarated. It was the truth, after all. Hiro didn't flinch at the declaration.

"I think I've loved you all along," he answered back, smiling slightly. Aria mirrored that smile.

* * *

"MAGNETIC MURDERER BEHIND BARS" the headline read. Aria stared at the newspaper in the man's hand, squinting, trying to read it from where she was behind the counter.

She hadn't been awake for it, but Ome had been 'escorted' to the nearest police station, where Hiro and the gang had helped the deputy fit Ome with a permanent regulator, rendering him powerless. She let out a sigh of relief. He was in prison now, awaiting trial, though Aria was confident he'd be given at least a life sentence, if not more.

"Aria?" Aunt Cass stuck her hand in front of Aria's face, waving it around. "Yoo hoo, anyone home?"

"Oh!" she squeaked, snapping out of it. "Sorry Cass!" The older woman rolled her eyes, smiling, and handed Aria a tray with several mugs and plates on it.

"Table six, sweetie," she said, winking at the girl. Rushing off to deliver the tray to it's intended recipients, Aria let herself relax again, and smile. This was nice. This was normal. And the best part?

No regulator.

She couldn't really explain it; maybe Hiro had been right, and her brain had just learned how to contain it on it's own. Maybe that mega-burst of power the other day had somehow helped her suppress her power's volatile nature. Either way, she no longer needed the regulator to keep her magnetism in check. And she was slowly weaning herself from the channellors as well. She would be 100% in control of her own powers within the month.

Dropping off the tray's contents with a few pleasantries to the customers, Aria turned and headed back towards the kitchen behind the front counter, passing Hiro sitting at one of the counter stools. He smiled that crooked smile she loved at her.

"Hard to believe you're the same girl who was stuttering and twitchy a few weeks ago," he said, as she set the tray down. He nodded towards the side of the main dining room, where the fork was still hanging from the beam, where it had almost hit her in the head that first day. Cass had left it there, unable to dislodge it from the wood, instead hanging a picture from it. One of Aria, Hiro and Baymax with the rest of the gang. "Not one fork has tried to kill you all shift!"

"Amazing, right?" she answered sarcastically.

"We could totally remedy that, though." He held up a fork jokingly, wiggling his eyebrows at her. She smirked, holding up her hand, and laughed at Hiro's shocked expression when the fork flew from his grip to hers.

"Wanna say that again now that I'm holding the fork?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows back in a mocking fashion. Hiro laughed just as the bell over the front door went off, and they both turned to see Fred leading the others into the café.

"Whoops, looks like we're interrupting your flirting," Fred said, just a bit too loudly, sliding into a seat beside Hiro. Honey Lemon giggled at Aria and Hiro's twin looks of shock, sitting on Hiro's other side. Aria turned before they could see her red face, and started making up cups of everyone's 'usual'; Earl grey for Wasabi, black tea with honey and lemon, obviously, for Honey Lemon, espresso for Gogo, and…well, there really wasn't a name for what Fred drank. It was the most unholy amalgamation of coffee, chocolate, mountain dew, caramel and whipped cream Aria had ever witnessed anyone consume.

"What!?" Hiro said, his laughter just a bit too forced. "Flirting? Haha, I have…absolutely no idea what you're talking about! Haha…ha…" His eyes shifted to Aria briefly, who shot him a panicked look.

"Dude, it's so obvious," Wasabi put in, leaning on the counter between Fred and Hiro.

"Really!?"

"That…and Honey Lemon already told us all." Hiro let his head fall into his hand, sighing heavily. Honey Lemon patted his shoulder apologetically.

"Sorry, Hiro! I didn't mean to, it just sort of…slipped."

"Not like anyone with eyes couldn't already see it." Gogo was sitting on the other side of Fred, picking fuzzies off of Fred's sweater. "Jesus, are you ever not covered in something, Fred?" Aria began setting teacups and mugs down in front of everyone, really wishing she could melt into the wall right now. Everyone knew!? Great, just great! This was the most intense feeling of embarrassment she'd ever experienced.

"So, now that the cat's out of the bag," Wasabi said, blowing on his cup of tea, "I gatta ask; are you staying in San Fransokyo, Aria?" Relieved at the reprieve from feeling embarrassed, Aria's eyebrows went up.

"Oh! Uh, well…no," she said, shrugging. Hiro, who'd been nursing a glass of soda for a while now, nearly spit it out at this. Swallowing hard, he gave her a worried look.

"You're not!?" he asked, feeling almost…betrayed. She couldn't go now! Not just when they'd come to terms with all this confusing 'love' stuff! He'd watched her die, for Christ's sake, come back to life, kick ass, nearly kill someone, and the pass out, all in the last 48 hours. Jesus, 12 hours ago, she'd told him she loved him! And she was going back to Los AngelOsaka!?

"I do have parents, you know," Aria pointed out. "I ran away from that life to get help. Now that I've gotten help and fixed the whole 'Ome' problem, I've got to go back. My parents are probably worried sick. I AM technically a missing person."

"Will you come back?" Honey Lemon asked, looking almost as hurt as Hiro. In the past few weeks, her and Aria had grown so close; she'd be sad to say goodbye to her new friend, especially if it meant saying goodbye forever.

"I don't know," Aria admitted, rubbing the back of her neck. "I don't have a job, it'd take me so long to save up enough to rent here in the city…"

"What about this!?" Hiro asked, motioning to the tray she was holding, and the apron she was wearing. "Cass would hire you full time in a heartbeat! And you could stay with us!" There was a desperate sort of edge to his voice.

"You could apply to SFIT!" Fred interjected, which was met with vocal approval from the others, though Aria just shook her head.

"You guys are forgetting that I'm not a genius," she said, smiling sadly. "I'm not some tech guru, or brilliant chemist, or even mildly good at anything technological. I have trouble operating my own smartphone sometimes!"

"That's because you still have to jail-break it," Hiro put in quietly.

"I don't belong at SFIT. And I can't stay here, with you," she added, motioning to Hiro. "I'm not gonna impose like that."

"It wouldn't be imposing!" Hiro protested. "We want you here!"

"Hiro," Aria said, a warning in her voice, but also resignation. She was about to say more, to close the matter, but Gogo got up then, walking up behind Hiro. Taking either side of his face in her hands, she turned him, directing his squished face towards Aria.

"Aria, look at him," Gogo said, raising an eyebrow. "He's like a dumb little puppy. He's gonna be mopey and sad and infuriatingly useless if you don't come back. Do you think any of us wants to deal with that?" Gogo kept a straight face as she said this, but Aria could tell she was joking. Hiro smiled as he was held in place by Gogo, and after a pause, wiggled his eyebrows. Aria had to take a deep breath to keep from laughing.

"I'll see if I can work something out," she relented, which was met by cheers from the others. She shook her head and smiled, setting her hand on the counter. Hiro's hand rested on top of it, causing her to look up suddenly. As the others were laughing and talking amongst themselves, the two of them shared a smile.

Aria knew she wouldn't be able to stay away for long.


	21. Epilogue

Hana scowled, squinting at her younger brother's toy. What a juvenile piece of tech. She was already planning modifications to the car, and it was barely out of it's packaging.

"C'mon, Hana," Tadashi whined, trying to reach up and grab it; curse his sister for being so tall! "It's MY birthday present!" He wrinkled his nose at her, frowning as she continued to play keep away.

"This thing isn't even worth your time," she said, pressing her large-frame glasses further up her nose and rolling her eyes. "I don't know what Obasan and Ojisan were thinking…" Tadashi had had enough of this; he didn't care if it didn't fly and shoot lasers and solve world hunger, he just thought it was a cool toy, and was sick of his sister nitpicking everything! His six-year old features scrunched up in anger, and the same moment he stuck his hand out in front of him, the car ripped from Hana's grip, and flew to his palm. His scowl immediately vanished now that he had his toy, and he turned on his heel.

"Thank you!" he sang, giggling as his sister started to give chase.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that!" she called after him. Their sock-feet thumped against the hardwood floors as they zipped around corners, passing their mother and father in the kitchen. Their mother stood from her seat, worried that they were going to run into something, but their father shook his head, laughing.

"Hana, you are 12 years old!" Aria huffed, tired to death of all their squabbling. "Just let your brother enjoy the toy before you mod it to hell and back!"

"I mean, she does have a point," Hiro put in, raising his eyebrows. "I could make one of those in my sleep. I'm sure she could to; it's a weak piece of tech." Aria shot him an exasperated glance.

"Okay, my parents have no idea what's weak or strong or complex or simple, they just wanted to get Tadashi a present." Collapsing back in her chair, Aria shook her head. "Honestly, sometimes I feel like me and Tadashi are the only non-geniuses in the world who can still appreciate the simple things."

"Enjoy that while you can," Hiro said, resting his face in one hand, his elbow on the table. "Wasabi said he's never seen anyone pick up piano quite as quickly as the Mini-Magnet." He wiggled his eyebrows at his wife. "Looks like you're surrounded by us."

"One normal child," she sighed, smiling slightly. "Just one, is that too much to ask?" In reality, she'd always known her kids would take after their father. They'd always been intelligent, even very early on. Hana was speeding through High School almost as quickly as Hiro had, and was already starting to look at SFIT's class catalogue. And Tadashi had been musical since the first day he'd laid his chubby toddler hands on a set of ivory keys. It had just been a happy accident that their son also seemed to have inherited Aria's…abilities.

"Third time's the charm," Hiro said, grinning at her as she slapped his shoulder playfully.

"Why don't you grow one for me in your lab," Aria said, shaking her head.

"Aw, but that leaves out the fun part." Hiro jutted his lower lip out comically, which seemed to amuse Aria to no end.

"No more babies," she said, standing, and kissing his nose. "I've got my hands full as it is. You pretty much count as a third child anyway." She picked up the loose wrapping paper from the table, and carried it to the kitchen garbage. "Plus with Victoria, Kadence and Rolf always over, it's like I have my own little herd of ankle bitters."

"Aw, but Victoria and Kadence are so well behaved," Hiro said, leaning back in his chair to watch his wife through the kitchen doorway. "It's like they aren't even here. And you love it when Honey brings them over."

"That is true." She reached into the fridge and grabbed a soda, tossing one to Hiro as well. "But I could honestly due without Fred and Rolf. It's not that I don't like the kid…but he's always sort of….grimy." She made a face, which caused Hiro to laugh.

"Fred is always sort of grimy too," he said, clicking the pull tab open.

"You'd think the little Miss Priss he got hitched to woulda done him some good, y'know?"

"Ey, whadya gonna do?" Hana and Tadashi made another lap around the house, speeding through the kitchen and dining room one more. This time, though, Tadashi's feet slid on the hardwood, flying out from under him, and he went spinning out under the table. He let out a wail as he fell.

"OW!" he shrieked, coming to a halt, and both Hiro and Aria sprun up to pull him to his feet. "Ow ow ow ow!"

"Hey, you're okay buddy," Hiro said, looking him over and dusting him off. "No broken bones, you're fine!" But of course, this wasn't going to placate the boy, who immediately burst into tears. Hana stood, stunned, seemingly torn between feeling bad, and wanting to escape before her parents could turn their wrath on her.

"It's all Hana's fault!" Tadashi wailed, stabbing his finger at his sister with one hand, while smearing tears on the back of the other. "She wants to break my stuff, all the time!"

"I was gonna make it better," Hana said sheepishly, and Aria looked up at her daughter with the most exasperated look on her face. "Hey, I didn't cause him to slip!"

"You should know better than to be running around the house!" Aria said, shaking her head. "Honestly, I just-!"

"Why don't me and you have a chat," Hiro interrupted, straightening up and walking towards his daughter. Hana didn't look pleased at that prospect, but knew she wasn't in a position to refuse here; it was either be scolded by her mom, or scolded by her dad, and neither was going to be pleasant. At least she knew her dad would understand that she wasn't trying to ruin Tadashi's gift. So she let herself be led out of the room, glancing sadly over her shoulder at her crying brother.

Tadashi was sniffling as they went, cheeks red from anger. Crouching beside him, Aria wiped an errant tear from his cheek, and sighed.

"Will the two of you ever get along?" she asked, honestly wondering if the next 12+ years would be nothing but bickering back and forth. Tadashi, frowned, eyes darting from the ground to his mother's face. He didn't mean to upset her, he'd just wanted to play with his toy, that was all!

"Maybe if Hana stops picking on me!" he huffed, scowling slightly at his sock feet. "It sucks!" At this, Aria's eyebrows flew up her forehead, and she stifled a gasp.

"Tadashi, where did you hear that word?" she asked, as Tadashi immediately recoiled. Aria knew it wasn't the worst word he could have picked up, but still. It definitely wasn't something he'd gotten from her. The boy looked at her sheepishly, and made a face.

"Uh…uh….nowhere," he said, not wanting to indict Auntie Gogo. He'd seen his mother and Gogo bickering before, and knew if he told her where he'd really gotten it from, he wouldn't get to see her as often as he did. But the look on Aria's face told him she wasn't buying it, so he quickly made up a little white lie. "…Uncle Fred said it."

"…Figures." Aria exhaled loudly, resting her head in her hand. She made a mental note to chew Fred out for that later. "That's not a very nice thing to say, you know," she said, standing straight and taking her son by the hand. She led him into the living room, and sat beside him on the couch.

"I'm sorry," Tadashi said. Gosh, he felt like he couldn't do anything right! But when Aria smiled, he relaxed slightly.

"Not your fault Uncle Fred has some screws loose," she said, a hint of a laugh in her voice. She immediately frowned, though, looking serious. "Uh…don't repeat that. That wasn't a nice thing to say either."

"Mommy!" Tadashi laughed at her, his eyes squinty as he smiled wide. But before he could make fun of her for breaking her own rule, Hana reentered the room, followed closely by Hiro. She didn't look as sullen as she had when she'd left.

"Hana's got something to say to you," Hiro told his son, nudging Hana by the shoulder.

"Sorry I tried to mod your truck," Hana said, sounding slightly rehearsed. "I promise to always let you play with stuff at least once before I upgrade it." Aria was not particularly impressed with this apology, but it seemed like enough for Tadashi, who leapt up to retrieve the toy.

"Okay!" he chirped, scooping it up in his arms. "I'm gonna go drive it offa stuff in the yard, wanna come watch?" Hana didn't look super interested in supervising her brother's antics, but with another nudge from her father, she relented and followed the boy down the stairs.

"See?" Hiro said, flopping down on the sofa beside his wife. "It's all butterflies and unicorns now. Am I a great Dad, or am I a great Dad?" Aria smiled and rolled her eyes at him, shoving him slightly.

"No third option?" she asked, and Hiro mimed a shot to the heart.

"You wound me, Aria," he said dramatically, only to fall equally as dramatically to lay in her lap. "So it's only fair you nurse me back to health." He grinned, before puckering his lips.

"What a ham," Aria laughed. Regardless, she bent and picked her husband in return. "But I have to admit, that was a pretty quick talk. Hana's not that easy to get to apologize; what did you say to her?" Sitting back up, Hiro shrugged.

"Oh, siblings shouldn't tease each other so much, fighting never solves anything, ect ect. You know. Typical adult-y stuff." He paused, before shrugging again. "Aaaand…I also promised to buy her her own truck to mod to her heart's content."

"Hiro!"

* * *

**Aaaand, now it's the end!**

**It's been a hell of a long time since I posted the last chapter, huh? Haha, I just didn't have the time or willpower to write a little epilogue, but here you go!**

**So, a few of my reviews were asking if I was thinking of writing a sequel, and to that I say, I don't know. I left this epilogue pretty bland and ambiguous, so that if I were to write a sequel, it would take place before Tadashi and Hana come along, between the main story and this snippet. But honestly, I don't really have any ideas for what the sequel would be about. So if anyone has any suggestions for what they'd want to see in the sequel, or if they want one at all, leave a review with some ideas, and I'll see what I can do!**


	22. Update - Sequel

UPDATE - The sequel to **Side Effect: M** is now out - Go check out my newest story featuring Aria and Big Hero 6: **Lingering Symptoms**! And thank you all for the love and support as I write these stories! 3


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